SWALLOWED BY AN EARTHQUAKE. London: Edward Arnold, n.d. [1894]. Octavo, pp. [i-v] vi [vii] viii 1-235 [236: blank] + 32-page undated publisher's catalogue inserted at rear, six inserted plates with illustrations by H. C. Seppings Wright, original bevel-edged pictorial red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black and silver, decorated endpapers. First edition. The second of Fawcett's three SF books. Account of a journey into a non-Symmesian hollow earth inhabited by prehistoric people and saurian monsters. "British boys' book obviously patterned on the work of Jules Verne, with a certain didactic approach ... Well written, like most British Victorian boys' books, but lamentable in its jingoism and sometimes rather absurd." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 710. "One of the classics of the lost race genre. Typical American family and its house are swallowed whole during a violent earthquake and precipitated into a cavernous underworld, where they encounter prehistoric survivals, dinosaurs, ape-men, etc. Nicely illustrated." - Leon Gammell. Angenot and Khouri, "An International Bibliography of Prehistoric Fiction," SFS, VIII (March 1981), 43. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 422. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 82 and A Spectrum of Fantasy Volume III, p. 164. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, p. 56. Bleiler (1978), p. 71. Reginald 05247. Brief 1915 Christmas gift inscription on the half title page. Binding slightly leaned, top edge of text block a bit dusty, a very good copy. The binding is bright and attractive. A superior copy of a book rarely found in decent condition. (#157136).
Price: $1,000.00
No statement of printing.