THE FOX-WOMAN. Philadelphia & London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1900. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-308 [309-320: ads], frontispiece with illustration by Virginia H. Davisson, title page printed in red and black, original pictorial white cloth, front and spine panels stamped in red and purple, rear panel stamped in red (binding signed "H"), t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. First edition. A presentation copy with initialed inscription by Long on the front free endpaper: "Das heist vergiss-mein-nich" (This means "forget-me-not"). "If the exotic quality in [Lafcadio] Hearn was made authentic by observation, that of John Luther Long (1861-1927) was largely the product of his imagination, at times of high order, and one that has not had proper appreciation either in fiction or drama. He was never in Japan, but inspired by information which he received from his sister, Mrs. Irwin Currell, he established an atmosphere which has the illusion of reality, and from it he evolved one character at least, of supreme importance who has passed into world literature ... Long continued his exotic romance in THE FOX WOMAN (1900), an imaginative novel of a crippled Japanese artist and his worship of a beautiful but soulless American woman to whom he is just a passing whim. She is the 'Fox Woman' of the Japanese, who is without a soul. For her own pleasure she models him after the hideous Ni-O figures, and in order to please her he tries to look like these grotesques until he grows as bestial as they and his soul becomes subject to his body, just as before his ugly body had been made noble in the eyes of his wife, Jewel, by the splendor of his soul. Long uses effectively the utter submission of a Japanese wife to her husband's will in Marushida's present to Miss Carroway of Jewel for her body servant. The inevitable discovery on the artist's part of his abandonment by the goddess and the return of Jewel are told simply and naturally." - Quinn, American Fiction, pp. 516-518. Long is best known for his long short story "Madame Butterfly," dramatized in collaboration with David Belasco, later made into the famous opera by Puccini. Wright (III) 3388. Stamping on spine panel faded, mild dust soiling to rear panel, a very good copy. A very nice copy of a rare vampire novel. (#136802).
Price: $450.00
No statement of printing.