What Never Dies

Barbey D'aurevilly; translated into English by Sebastian Melmoth (Oscar Wilde)

Published by Keller-Farmer Co., London, 1907

About this Item

'Uniform Edition.' 'The Writings of Oscar Wilde.' Illustrated with four full-page b&w drawings, each inset in a square. All four are in excellent condition and are protected by a tissue guard containing a related quote in red print (i.e. " 'Are you mad?' He asked in fright." Or " 'Confess that you are tired of me?' "). I have to confess that I'm having trouble identifying this book in relationship to the others that are for sale. I haven't found a reference to a copy that matches it. There are 556 pages. After the frontispiece ( " 'I order you to go away tomorrow' ") there is a half-title page which identifies Keller-Farmer as the publisher and 1907 as the date of publication. The following title page, light yellow with black and red lettering, also references a copyright in 1907 by A.R. Keller & Co. This book does not appear to be a limited edition. On the spine is printed ' Edition De Luxe '. The top page edge is gilt. The middle and bottom page edges are deckled or rough-cut. You can see the gilt lettering and border with the dark green background on the spine in the second photo. There's a little bit of crinkling and rubbing at the spine ends. There is a little handling soiling on the front cover, and that one bit of lipstick or blood (I order you to go away tomorrow) on the rear cover. Parts of the cover edges have a bit of color fade to white. The two bottom corners have a spot of rub-through. The book is pretty square and the spine is pretty straight. The pages are very nicely and solidly bound from cover to cover. Over parts of the juncture between the front inside cover and front end paper the paper has a thin tear and some webbing is showing, same with the rear cover, but over most of it, though the paper is mostly in place. Both covers have a slight bit of give if you pull at them from the side, but are solidly bound. Both white inside covers and endpapers are clean. That's the case with the pages. The only exception to that is the page listing the illustrations which has a speckling of speck-sized brownish spots. It's not actually soiling, rather some minor reaction to the paper I suppose. You can see it to a smaller extent on a few other pages here and there, pretty inconspicuous. There's very little actual soiling and the pages are fairly bright. I just saw something really odd (never saw this before): The name of the publisher can vaguely be seen at the margins of most of the pages in colorless block letters. What an odd thing for a publisher to do. How much would that add to the value of the book? I'll assume nothing. Be clear that this is not something an owner did, this is the way the book was produced. Finishing up, the pages are in very decent condition. I'm not seeing much by way of creasing, no turned-down corners or placeholder creases. There are no markings. No attachments of any kind. And no one has written their name or anything else anywhere in the book. The book has its own Wikipedia profile: 'an 1884 novel, it tells the story of the orphan Allan who falls in love with his protectress, Mme de Scudemot, who has become indifferent due to erotic excesses in her youth; Allan eventually marries his lover's daughter Camille, but has been smitten by the older woman's indifference. The narrative uses techniques from the Gothic novel and its French counterpart, the "roman frénétique". Written between 1833 and 1836, it was the first full-length novel by d'Aurevilly. An English translation published in 1902, was falsely attributed to Oscar Wilde under his pseudonym Sebastian Melmoth. In his 1967 monograph, 'The Novels and Stories of Barbey D'Aurevilly', Brian G. Rogers wrote "Though liberally sprinkled with youthful errors, the novel is the first full-length work to reflect Barbey's enthusiasm for a world completely dominated by passion, and already his treatment of incipient attraction, passionate love and cold disillusion takes on a characteristic flavour. Here, not a single note rings false.". Seller Inventory # 004208

Bibliographic Details

Title: What Never Dies

Publisher: Keller-Farmer Co., London

Publication Date: 1907

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good