CALLED BACK ... Arrowsmith's Bristol Library Vol. I. Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith, 11 Quay Street. London: Griffith & Farran, St. Paul's Churchyard, 1884. Small octavo, pp. [1-4] [1] 2-194 [195-196: blank] [note: last leaf (O2) is a blank], nineteenth-century three-quarter green leather and marbled boards. First book edition. Published earlier as ARROWSMITH'S CHRISTMAS ANNUAL FOR 1883. Conway's first full-length fiction, a short novel which brought him worldwide fame and established the formula and format of the Victorian shilling shocker. "... this sensational story of murder, amnesia, Siberian exile, political assassination and detection made a tremendous hit. It was translated all over Europe, a dramatized version ran for a year, and the novel sold over 350,000 copies in four years." - Sutherland, Victorian Fiction, p. 222. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 58 (Christmas Annual). Hubin (1994), p. 184. Sadleir 608 ("83rd thousand"). Wolff 1423a (rebound). Topp, Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks, 1849-1905 VIII, p. 217. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978) or Reginald (1979; 1992). Gift inscription dated 11 June 1884 at upper edge of title page. This copy is missing leaf A2 (an advertising leaf between the title/contents leaf and B1, the first leaf of text) and leaf O2 (the final blank), and has been bound without the original stiff white wrappers. A very good copy. The true first printing of this book (with title page dated 1884) is scarce. (#130798).
Price: $250.00
No statement of printing.