JUDGMENT EVE: STORIES. London: Constable & Co., Ltd., 1924. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7 [8] 9-299 [300-304] [note: last two leaves are blanks], original red boards, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. "A mixed collection of twelve stories. 'Seven Devils' explores necromancy, ghosts, devil-worship and madness in the wolds of Essex. 'Ernest' is about a religious fanatic who preaches a kind of Christian heresy, baptizing his followers in blood and carving a cross in their foreheads, while exhibiting (temporarily) the stigmata himself. Is he an impostor? A madman? A true saint? He goes to Japan and is crucified. 'The Secret Valley' concerns premonitions and death and a woman committed to an asylum who may or may not be mad. 'The Legend of the Green Lady' and 'The Wandering Jew' are permeated with allusions to the legendary. 'Judgment Eve' ends with a brief posthumous fantasy. Throughout these stories one finds hysterical women and tortured men, reeling from the disillusionment of the war, and madness and death and everywhere a faint perfume of the fantastic. Literary fiction with a careful, densely layered style." - Robert Eldridge. Reginald 06890. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978). Hint of rubbing to spine ends and corner tips, a nearly fine copy. A remarkably nice copy of a book with a very fragile binding which is generally found well worn at edges or worse. (#113190).
Price: $150.00
No statement of printing.