(#152993) MISS INCOGNITA: A NOVEL by "Don Jon" [pseudonym]. Walter Thomas Cheyney, "Don Jon."

MISS INCOGNITA: A NOVEL by "Don Jon" [pseudonym]. New York, Chicago, London: F. Tennyson Neely Co., [1901]. Octavo, pp. [iii-v] vi-xx [7] 8-321 [322-324] [note: erratically paged, but complete], original burgundy cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, pictorial paper onlay affixed to front panel, t.e.g. First edition. A presentation copy with an inscription in Cheyney's hand on the front free endpaper: " A little remembrance / of Atlantic City / and / Joseph Tyler Butts." Eccentric SF romance novel, set in Chicago, New York, London and Bermuda in the years following the Civil War. The plot is centered around a psychologist and inventor who uses hypnotism and "hydro-electric vibratoners" to force young women to submit to his whims. He becomes infatuated with a young girl under his tutelage, tricks her into submitting herself for an experiment with his 'vibratoners' and marries her once she is under his control. Unbeknownst to him, she is his daughter from a previous liaison. As the story unfolds, she elopes with her own brother, and becomes free from the mind control she was subjected to. At the novel's climax, she, having plotted her revenge, confronts the evil doctor; he, overwhelmed with desire for her, attempts to take her by force by once again using the 'vibratoners' which she has rigged to backfire. The novel closes with the doctor being electrocuted -- his tongue bursting into flames while the heroine calmly watches. (Reading note courtesy of Lorne Bair Rare Books, Inc.). Smith, American Fiction, 1901-1925 C-342. A bright, nearly fine copy. OCLC reports one copy (OSU). (#152993).

Price: $850.00

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