(#147110) ARCHIBALD MALMAISON. Julian Hawthorne.

ARCHIBALD MALMAISON. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, Publishers, 1884. Octavo, pp. [1-2: ads] [1-5] 6-126 [127-142: publisher ads (variously paged)], original buff wrappers printed in red and black. First U.S. edition. The first printing with ad on page [142] headed "The Standard Library, 1884." Issued as part of Funk & Wagnalls' "Standard Library Series" in cloth at 75¢ and in paper as "Standard Library," No. 112, April 7, 1884 (as here) at 15¢. This edition contains the same five-page "Introductory" section found in the Bentley first edition (and omitted from the later 1899 Funk & Wagnalls edition). Hawthorne's neo-Gothic horror novel ARCHIBALD MALMAISON, first published in 1879 in London by Richard Bentley and Son, is his most melodramatically effective work of fiction. "Hawthorne's most powerful horror story ..." - Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 196. "Crowded with many Gothic manifestations, it arouses still the horror intended ... The story proved to be one of Hawthorne's most popular, both in England and America ..." - Bassan, Hawthorne's Son: The Life and Literary Career of Julian Hawthorne (1970), pp. 126-27. The author is at his most assured in this book, in perfect control of his material, and a pleasure to observe. A contemporary review in The London Times was typical of its reception abroad: "After perusal of this weird, fantastic tale, it must be admitted that upon the shoulders of Julian Hawthorne has descended in no small degree the mantle of his more illustrious father. The climax is so terrible, and so dramatic in its intensity, that it is impossible to class it with any situation of modern fiction. There is much psychological ingenuity shown in some of the more subtle touches that lend an air of reality to this wild romance." Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 2-77. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 107. Bleiler (1978), p. 96. Not in Reginald (1979; 1992). Cover stained along spine panel and lower edge of front cover, else a very good copy of a scarce issue of this book. (#147110).

Price: $250.00

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