A CHAIR ON THE BOULEVARD ... With an Introduction by A. Neil Lyons. London: Hodder & Stoughton Limited, n.d. [1919]. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-xi [xii] xiii-xv [xvi] [1] 2-371 [372: blank], original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. Twenty short stories, some criminous. His sixth collection of short stories. A highly regarded author of literary fiction in his day, often with a theatrical background, of which he gained firsthand experience during a two-year period as an actor-manager. Merrick also lived in South Africa as a young man, working for a brief period in a diamond mine. A fine literary craftsman, Merrick preferred writing stories to novels. "His short stories, modeled on the French, especially Maupassant, have taken over something of French social ideas as well as Gallic wit and subtlety." - Millett, Contemporary British Literature, 3rd. ed., p. 359. The only book original to Hodder & Stoughton's twelve-volume edition of THE WORKS OF LEONARD MERRICK (1918--1919). One of the stories here, "The Judgment of Paris," is a rather mordant conte cruel with a wonderful twist at the end. "The Last Effect" is a brilliant and grisly conte cruel about infidelity, and features a cabinet created for a stage illusion. Hubin (1994), p. 569. NCBEL III 1069. A clean, tight, very good copy with bright cover stamping. (#116648).
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