IN PURPURNER FINSTERNIß. ROMAN-IMPROVISATION AUS DEM DREIßIGSTEN JAHRHUNDERT. Berlin: Verein für Freies Schriftthum, n.d. [1895]. Octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-359 [360: printer's imprint], original decorated blue-gray cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, marbled edges, decorated endpapers. First edition. One of the best and most important nineteenth century German SF novels. Kretzmann considers this to be an important book and discusses it at length, as does William S. Lewis in his 1987 dissertation, Catastrophist/Eschatological Motifs in German Speculative Fiction, 1895-1925. "... interesting ... SF utopia mainly set in a labyrinth of caves, and critical of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), pp. 485-86. Rottensteiner considers Conrad's book to be "a mediocre novel influenced partly by Nietzsche and critical of Wilhelmian Germany." - Rottensteiner, "German SF" in Anatomy of Wonder (1987), p. 382. According to Sapra, the brilliant novel, which owes much to Nietzsche, is one of the first anti-utopias (Lexicon, pp. 60-1). Fortunati and Trousson, eds., Dictionary of Literary Utopias, pp. 302-3. Kretzmann, The Pre-War German Utopian Novel (1890-1914), Ph.D. diss., Brown University, May, 1936, pp. 126, 210. Bloch (2002) 650. Nagl, p. 246. This clothbound copy has the publisher's original paper wrappers bound as well. A bright, nearly fine copy. (#135707).
Price: $1,750.00
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