Francis Iles Anthony Berkeley Cox (10 results)

Paris : Gallimard, collection 'La Méridienne', 1953, 254 p. Traduit par Ed. Michel-Tyl. Ce roman est un des premiers à exploiter la technique de l'histoire criminelle inversée ('howcatchem'), qui dévoile dès le départ l'identité du meurtrier, pour s'intéresser à ses mobiles et à la façon dont la police va le confondre. Broché, couverture illustrée, en bon état général (marques de pliures au dos).

Hardcover. Condition: Fair. 1st Edition. Fair first US printing. Lacking the dust jacket. Publisher's black cloth with . red embossed to spine and cover. Wear to spine and cover. Minor fading to spine. Binding still square but with some looseness to the hinges. Pages clean, with very slight age toning. Crease to bottom corner of pages 201/202. One of the greatest Golden Age works of British crime fiction, about Dr Bickleigh and the mysterious death of his wife. Stated First Edition on copyright page.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Cheap Edition. Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles First Cheap Edition Gollancz 1931. Pseudonym of Anthony Berkeley Cox. No previous owner's marks or inscriptions, contents and edges free of foxing. A bright fine copy, covers completely unblemished. In a near fine dust jacket with no fading or toning.

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good+. 1st Edition. Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles Anthony Berkeley Cox First Edition Mundanus Ltd / Victor Gollancz 1931. Pseudonym of Anthony Berkeley Cox. No previous owner's name inscriptions or signs of ownership. Contents unblemished throughout and no foxing. Card covers are without toning. Spine complete without toning or fading and no tears or loss to edges. A bright VG+ copy. Malice Aforethought by Frances Iles, first published in 1931, is a pioneering psychological crime novel. Edmund Bickleigh, a doctor in a small English village, is trapped in a loveless marriage. His disdain for his wife, Julia, grows into a sinister plan for her murder, marking this book as an early exploration of premeditated crime in literature. The narrative delves into Bickleigh's mind, showcasing his methodical approach to commit the perfect crime while pursuing an affair with another woman. This groundbreaking work challenges the norms of the golden age of detective fiction by focusing on the psychology of the murderer rather than the act of detection.

Yellow card cover. Condition: Good. First Edition. G: in good condition without dust jacket as issued. Cover creased, marked, chipped and sunned. Browning to pages and text block. Some creasing to corners. 190mm x 130mm (7" x 5"). 288pp. Anthony Berkeley Cox wrote under several pen names, including Francis Iles, Anthony Berkeley and A. Monmouth Platts. In 1930 he was a founding member of the Detection Club along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Freeman Wills Crofts and others. Malice Aforethought is an early example of the inverted crime format where the crime and the identity of the criminal are known to the reader from the start. Mundanus was a short-lived imprint of Gollancz and published this paperback edition simultaneously with the cased edition.

First Edition. Original wrappers; browned; owner's signature; some tape mending of the spine; fair to good. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.

Third printing of the 1927 first edition. Publisher's original black cloth with red titles to the spine and upper board, in dustwrapper. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with bumping and rubbing to the extremities, the spine a touch faded and a few light marks to the cloth at fore-edge. The content's, with a previous owner's bookplate and shelf stamp to the front pastedown and his ownership name and date to the top of the title page, are otherwise clean throughout. Complete with the rubbed, creased and nicked dustwrapper, that has a few short closed tears and small chips at the folds and is otherwise bright and attractive. A scarce mystery novel from the founding member of The Detection Club who also wrote under the pseudonyms Francis Iles, Anthony Berkeley, and A. Monmouth Platts. Two amateur criminologists stage a mock murder to see how the alleged murderer reacts. (Hubin). Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.

Cloth. Condition: Very Good Indeed. None (illustrator). First edition. A very scarce, first hardback issue of this important 'inverted detective story'. Written by Anthony Berkeley Cox under the pen name Francis Iles. The first edition of this scarce crime fiction novel written by Anthony Berkeley Cox. The murderer's identity is revealed in the first line of the novel, which provides the reader with insights into the workings of the murderer's mind as his plans progress. Cox loosely based this novel on the real-life case of Herbert Armstrong and includes elements of Doctor Crippen.Issued under the Gollancz imprint of 'Mundanus' which they produced as a 3/- paperback series in an attempt to initiate a paperback revolution. This hardback edition was published simultaneously with the wrappers issue, as was a library issue. Copies of the hardback edition are extremely scarce.An extremely scarce copy of this important novel. In the publisher's original cloth binding. Externally, very smart. A few light marks to the boards. Bumping to the head and tail of spine. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright. Scattered spotting to the fore-edge, and heavy spots to the first and last few pages. Otherwise, occasional light spots. Very Good Indeed. book.

First edition. First edition, first printing, preceding the cloth issue. 288 pp. Bound in publisher's yellow wraps. About Very Good, spine creased and toned, small tear along spine edge at foot, contents and wraps toned with age, corners a little bumped. An uncommon British mystery that is often cited as one of the best examples of the inverted detective story, in which the murderer's identity is revealed in the first line, "It was not until several weeks after he had decided to murder his wife that Dr. Bickleigh took any active steps in the matter.".

FIRST EDITION, publisher's slip tipped in at rear 'To the Reader' (exhorting them to spread positive notice of the work through word-of-mouth), a couple of tiny spots at foot of half-title and the odd spot to border within, pp. 289, crown 8vo, original orange cloth, backstrip lettered in black, edges spotted with a few spots to endpapers, dustjacket price-clipped with some very light handling and the odd miniscule nick, very good. Rather a scarce book. The author was by then well-established as a detective novelist under the pseudonyms 'Francis Iles' and 'Anthony Berkeley', but Hamish Hamilton - then a young publisher - probably anticipated the likely readership for this book to be a little smaller: it is, the author confesses, 'written in indignation' and addresses itself to 'the ordinary citizen' in decrying the state of the nation at a time of crisis throughout Europe (Cox considers the character of Communism and Fascism, 'simple-souled twins' with 'at least one arm in common'). As often, the analysis seems to all-too-current in respect of its assessment of our political parties and the behaviour of our politicians, who are characterised by 'timidity', 'incompetence' and 'petty dishonesty': 'The Roman Emperors knew that, if they did not keep their plebs happy, they would lose their jobs, and probably their heads. Our Pollies are not afraid even of losing their seats'. Throughout his literary career, Cox wrote journalism and published collections of his work in that area, generally of a light and humorous variety - the present critique is distinguished from these by its earnest tone, though it is far from dry and full of the wit and brio that characterises his writing generally.