Pseudonym Heldmann Richard Bernard (5 results)

Ninth impression of the 1897 first edition. Publisher's original red cloth with an illustration of The Beetle in black and green and titles in black and gilt to the upper board, and titles in black and gilt to the spine. Illustrated with a tissue guarded frontispiece and three further full page black and white plates by John Williamson. Single page of publisher's adverts at the rear. A very good copy, the binding firm with rubbing and bumping to the extremities, the cloth with a few minor marks and some fading to the slightly rolled spine. The contents, with a previous owner's name in pencil, and a Christmas 1905 gift inscription in ink to the half title, are otherwise clean with just the odd finger mark or isolated foxing spot to the margins. An early supernatural mystery novel, first published in the same year as Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' and, like 'Dracula', developing a vein of gothic terror first popularised by Ann Radcliffe's 'The Mysteries of Udolpho' and later by Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.

[Literary Magazine] FIRST APPEARANCES. Octavo (24 x 18cm), pp.iv; 802; viii. With frequent black and white, and occasional dichromatic, illustrations. Publisher's cyan cloth with gilt titles to spines and black titles and decoration to uppers, all edges speckled red, white endpapers. Contents clean, a few light reading marks, extremities rubbed, minor discolouration to spine. Very good. An important volume of the Strand Magazine, including this famous Sherlock Holmes short story, which did not appear in a book-form edition for a further four years (His Last Bow, 1917). Also contains excerpts from Captain Scott's diaries, which later appeared in full in 'Scott's Last Expedition' (1913), an early contribution from Wodehouse, and numerous short pieces by various authors.

[Literary Magazine] LEATHER-BOUND FIRST APPEARANCES. Three volumes. Octavo (24 x 27cm), pp.[4] 804; pp.[4] 724; pp.[4] 804. With frequent black and white illustrations, including Paget's famous illustrations for the Holmes stories. Handsomely bound in brown half morocco, with raised bands, twin green title labels lettered in gilt, matching cloth over boards, t.e.g., other edges speckled. Contents a little toned as expected else clean, covers unmarked. Attractively presented in a recent leather binding. A significant collection, containing all thirteen parts of Doyle's 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes' and all twelve parts of Nesbit's 'The Phoenix and the Carpet.' Also featuring a selection of short pieces by Jacobs, Mason, Meade, Pemberton, Pain, Nesbit, Maugham, Marsh, and Morrison, and a vision of the tank from Wells more than ten years before it was deployed on the battlefields of France.

First Edition. [Supernatural thriller] First impression of this edition (second printings are identified as such on c.p.). Apparently the first edition printed in America following Mansfield's earlier edition using British sheets. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.viii; 338; [6], ads. Bound in publisher's dark blue cloth pictorially blocked in colours, edges trimmed. Contents clean but for small brown stain to gutter of prelims, ink name to endpaper, dated ink initials to top edge, covers clean and bright. Near fine. A fresh copy of an early supernatural mystery novel. One of the best selling novels of the late nineteenth century: The Beetle remained in print for over 60 years, effortlessly outselling its now far better known competition, a certain Dracula, printed the same year, being amongst them. Subsequent literary endeavours by people like Boothby and Rohmer clearly owe a lot to Marsh's really rather high calibre tale of evil oriental interlopers with insidious powers and sinister intentions. Rare in this condition.

Condition: Very Good. First edition hard back binding in publisher's original illustrated burgundy cloth covered boards, blocked and lettered gilt back, cream, green and russet illustration to the front cover, publisher's device blind stamped to lower cover. 8vo. 8'' x 5¼''. Focuses on another series that first appeared in provincial local newspapers across England, including the Manchester Times, the Leeds Mercury, and the Newcastle Weekly Courant in the period 1895 to 1900. One of the novel's multiple narrators was the Honourable Augustus Champnell, whose detective adventures are examined here. A number of these detective stories starring Champnell were published both before and after Marsh's success with The Beetle, not only do these stories have a fascinating publication history, they also feature one of the first aristocratic private detectives in literary history, appearing some 20 years before Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, meaning that they offer intriguing explorations of the class dynamics of Victorian police-work and criminality. Contains tissue-guarded frontispiece, (vii), 310 pp + 16 pp ads. Oval indigo stamp to the first story from Newcastle-on-Tyne Police Library, finger marks to the text block edges and in Very Good bright condition. Extremely scarce. Member of the P.B.F.A. DETECTIVE | CRIME FICTION.