Literature
Crime & Detective
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Spies Espionage James Bond 007
Austen Bronte
Conrad & Kipling
Dickens & Shakespeare
Greene & Orwell
Hemingway & Steinbeck
Maugham & Waugh
Wodehouse
Antiquarian
Modern
American
Poetry
Flying Colours. Including A Ship Of The Line -
C. S. Forester
1938 - Michael Joseph Ltd. in conjunction with The Book Society Ltd., London - First Edition
One finely bound volume containing two classic Hornblower novels, in which Captain Horatio Hornblower commands his first ship of the line, HMS Sutherland. A Ship Of The Line and Flying Colours, are the second and third books in the Horatio Hornblower series. This is the first publication of Flying Colours which was released shortly afterwards as a stand alone title, making this the true first edition.
A Ship of the Line - May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Horatio Hornblower is newly in command of his first ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland, which he deems ‘the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List’. Moreover, she is 250 men short of a full crew, so Hornblower must enlist and train ‘poachers, bigamists, sheepstealers’, and other landlubbers. By the time the Sutherland reaches the blockaded Catalonian coast of Spain, the crew is capable of staging five astonishing solo raids against the French. But the grisly prospect of defeat and capture looms for both captain and crew as the Sutherland single-handedly takes on four French ships.
Flying Colours - Forced to surrender the Sutherland after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner in a French fortress. Within days he and his first lieutenant, Bush, who was crippled in the last fight, are to be taken to Paris to be tried on trumped-up charges of violating the laws of war, and most probably executed as part of Napoleon's attempt to rally the war-weary empire behind him. Even if Hornblower escapes this fate and somehow finds his way back to England, he will face court-martial for his surrender of a British ship. As fears for his life and his reputation compete in his mind with worries about his pregnant wife and his possibly widowed lover, the indomitable captain impatiently awaits the chance to make his next move.
More details
Price HK$ 5,000
1938 - Michael Joseph Ltd. in conjunction with The Book Society Ltd., London - First Edition
One finely bound volume containing two classic Hornblower novels, in which Captain Horatio Hornblower commands his first ship of the line, HMS Sutherland. A Ship Of The Line and Flying Colours, are the second and third books in the Horatio Hornblower series. This is the first publication of Flying Colours which was released shortly afterwards as a stand alone title, making this the true first edition.A Ship of the Line - May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Horatio Hornblower is newly in command of his first ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland, which he deems ‘the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List’. Moreover, she is 250 men short of a full crew, so Hornblower must enlist and train ‘poachers, bigamists, sheepstealers’, and other landlubbers. By the time the Sutherland reaches the blockaded Catalonian coast of Spain, the crew is capable of staging five astonishing solo raids against the French. But the grisly prospect of defeat and capture looms for both captain and crew as the Sutherland single-handedly takes on four French ships.
Flying Colours - Forced to surrender the Sutherland after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner in a French fortress. Within days he and his first lieutenant, Bush, who was crippled in the last fight, are to be taken to Paris to be tried on trumped-up charges of violating the laws of war, and most probably executed as part of Napoleon's attempt to rally the war-weary empire behind him. Even if Hornblower escapes this fate and somehow finds his way back to England, he will face court-martial for his surrender of a British ship. As fears for his life and his reputation compete in his mind with worries about his pregnant wife and his possibly widowed lover, the indomitable captain impatiently awaits the chance to make his next move.
More details
Price HK$ 5,000
The Singing Bone -
R. Austin Freeman
1912 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Edition
A lauded and listed collection of five stories, beginning with The Case of Oscar Brodski, by the ‘true and undoubted ‘parent’ of the scientific detective story in the highest meaning of the phrase.’ (Haycraft, Murder for Pleasure.) First edition, with misprinted quotation mark on the title-page.
Symons in Murder for Pleasure stresses the originality of this collection of short stories, in which we see a crime committed, and then watch Dr. John Thorndyke discover and follow clues that lead to the criminal, a concept known as the ‘inverted tale’. Symons also admired Freeman’s accuracy in detail, a result of Freeman’s medical training and perhaps his work as a medical advisor at Holloway Prison, and Haycraft points out that no other literary criminologist has been paid tribute of having his fictional methods put into use by the real police.
These ‘Freeman 'inverted' tales were a monumental contribution to the development of the detective story, and from them have stemmed some of the great modern masterpieces of crime writing.’ – Ellery Queen, Queen’s Quorum.
More details
Price HK$ 1,100
1912 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Edition
A lauded and listed collection of five stories, beginning with The Case of Oscar Brodski, by the ‘true and undoubted ‘parent’ of the scientific detective story in the highest meaning of the phrase.’ (Haycraft, Murder for Pleasure.) First edition, with misprinted quotation mark on the title-page.Symons in Murder for Pleasure stresses the originality of this collection of short stories, in which we see a crime committed, and then watch Dr. John Thorndyke discover and follow clues that lead to the criminal, a concept known as the ‘inverted tale’. Symons also admired Freeman’s accuracy in detail, a result of Freeman’s medical training and perhaps his work as a medical advisor at Holloway Prison, and Haycraft points out that no other literary criminologist has been paid tribute of having his fictional methods put into use by the real police.
These ‘Freeman 'inverted' tales were a monumental contribution to the development of the detective story, and from them have stemmed some of the great modern masterpieces of crime writing.’ – Ellery Queen, Queen’s Quorum.
More details
Price HK$ 1,100
For the Defense: Dr. Thorndyke -
R. Austin Freeman
1934 - Dodd, New York - First American Edition
Superb example in bright sharp dust jacket
More details
Price HK$ 3,500
1934 - Dodd, New York - First American Edition
Superb example in bright sharp dust jacket
More details
Price HK$ 3,500
Dr. Thorndyke’s Discovery -
R. Austin Freeman
1932 - Dodd, New York - First American Edition
A superior example of this Dr. Thorndyke mystery, published the same year in London as ‘When Rogues Fall Out’.
More details
Price HK$ 3,800
1932 - Dodd, New York - First American Edition
A superior example of this Dr. Thorndyke mystery, published the same year in London as ‘When Rogues Fall Out’.
More details
Price HK$ 3,800
Dr. Thorndyke Intervenes -
R. Austin Freeman
1933 - Dodd, New York - First American Edition
A fine copy in nice example of this rather delicate dust jacket.
More details
Price HK$ 3,000
1933 - Dodd, New York - First American Edition
A fine copy in nice example of this rather delicate dust jacket.
More details
Price HK$ 3,000
The Penrose Mystery -
R. Austin Freeman
1936 - Dodd, New York - First American Edition
Dr. Thorndyke is concerned with the mysterious disappearance of Daniel Penrose, a well-to-do collector of antiquities.
More details
Price HK$ 3,800
1936 - Dodd, New York - First American Edition
Dr. Thorndyke is concerned with the mysterious disappearance of Daniel Penrose, a well-to-do collector of antiquities.
More details
Price HK$ 3,800
The D. A. Cooks a Goose - Inscribed -
Erle Stanley Gardner
1941 - William Morrow and Company, New York - First Edition
First edition, inscribed to his secretary Louise Weissberger - ‘To Louise, Who is one of the the fiction factory with much love, yours Erle’ and signed ‘Erle Stanley Gardner’.
‘A midnight hit-and-run accident on a lonely mountain road...
a tragic fatality
discovery of the missing car...
and Doug Selby, District Attorney of Madison City, finds himself not only up against a most involved case but in the hottest spot of his career.’
More details
Price HK$ 12,000
1941 - William Morrow and Company, New York - First Edition
First edition, inscribed to his secretary Louise Weissberger - ‘To Louise, Who is one of the the fiction factory with much love, yours Erle’ and signed ‘Erle Stanley Gardner’.‘A midnight hit-and-run accident on a lonely mountain road...
a tragic fatality
discovery of the missing car...
and Doug Selby, District Attorney of Madison City, finds himself not only up against a most involved case but in the hottest spot of his career.’
More details
Price HK$ 12,000
Nobody Lives Forever -
John Gardner
1986 - Jonathan Cape and Hodder & Stoughton, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of the fifth James Bond novel by James Gardner, who, after a stint as a commando with the Royal Marines, studied theology at Cambridge, had a short career as an Anglican priest before finally turning to writing.
‘Take care 007. Take special care. The continent’s a hotbed of villainy these days and you can never be too careful.’
Bond was supposed to be on leave. But SPECTRE leader Tamil Rahani, dying from injuries suffered at Bond’s hand, is determined to make it the holiday to die for.
The dust jacket for Nobody Lives For Ever was designed by Trevor Scobie and is the last novel to have its first edition cover in the iconic style of Richard Chopping. Chopping had previously drawn nine Ian Fleming novels from 1956 to 1966 as well as Gardener's Licence Renewed in 1981.
More details
Price HK$ 1,200
1986 - Jonathan Cape and Hodder & Stoughton, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of the fifth James Bond novel by James Gardner, who, after a stint as a commando with the Royal Marines, studied theology at Cambridge, had a short career as an Anglican priest before finally turning to writing.‘Take care 007. Take special care. The continent’s a hotbed of villainy these days and you can never be too careful.’
Bond was supposed to be on leave. But SPECTRE leader Tamil Rahani, dying from injuries suffered at Bond’s hand, is determined to make it the holiday to die for.
The dust jacket for Nobody Lives For Ever was designed by Trevor Scobie and is the last novel to have its first edition cover in the iconic style of Richard Chopping. Chopping had previously drawn nine Ian Fleming novels from 1956 to 1966 as well as Gardener's Licence Renewed in 1981.
More details
Price HK$ 1,200