THE CONQUEST OF THE MOON: A STORY OF THE BAYOUDA. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington Limited, 1889. Octavo, pp. [i-vii] viii-x [xi-xii] [1-3] 4-354 [355-356: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], 15 inserted plates with full-page illustrations by Georges Roux, 51 smaller illustrations, also by Roux, in the text, original pictorial red cloth, front panel stamped in gold, black and gray, spine panel stamped in black and gold, publisher's monogram stamped in black on rear panel, all edges plain, light yellow coated endpapers. First edition. A translation of LE EXILES DE LA TERRE: SELENE-COMPANY LIMITED ... (1887), a well-known interplanetary novel by a colleague of Jules Verne. Financiers attempt to exploit the resources of the Moon. They magnetize a mountain in the Sahara to pull the satellite into close proximity of the Earth. However, through miscalculation, their observatory is drawn from the Earth to a lunar valley from which they later escape, descending to Earth via parachute. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1281. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 494. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 15. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 698. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 134. Locke, Voyages in Space 125. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, p. 38. Bleiler (1978), p. 119. Reginald 08704. Light wear to corners and spine ends, some bubbling to cloth on rear cover, a very good or somewhat better copy with bright cover stamping. (#137075).
Price: $1,250.00
No statement of printing.