SUOMIRIA: A FANTASY. Edinburgh: Printed for David Douglas, 1899. Octavo, pp. [i-v] vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-322 [323-324: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, rear panel stamped in blind, t.e.g., other edges untrimmed, brown coated endpapers. First edition. Privately printed in an edition of fifty copies for the author. This copy has a presentation inscription by the author on the limitation leaf to W. Talbot Ready. "Two part novel. In the first part the protagonist, while wandering in a dense and unexplored forest in Scotland, is attacked by Ape-Goats; i.e., part giant ape and part goat. He is saved by a female Sphinx (Suomiria) who he soon falls in love with (by virtue of her face alone, her body being that of a lion). She leads him to her home that is in the interior of the Earth. Here she is instantly transformed by magic into a full human. He dwells for a time among the Sphinx race but grows homesick for the surface. The second part of the book is distinctly different, having no fantasy element whatever except for the climax in which Suomiria returns among druidic ruins to save the lives of the hero and his wife, but sacrifices her own in compliance with a sacred troth she made in the first part of the book. A tale of magic, combat, sorcery and love that could not be called lost race in treatment. A strange story that might be more accurately be categorized as straight fantasy." - Teitler and Locke (2013) 1139. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 203. Bleiler (1978), p. 183. Reginald 13456. Not in Sargent. A fine copy. (#157130).
Price: $1,500.00
"IMPRESSION OF FIFTY COPIES / [Not Published.] / ... / PRINTED FOR DAVID DOUGLAS, / EDINBURGH" on verso of half title leaf.