THE TIME IS COMING. New York: G. W. Dillingham Co., Publishers, 1896. Octavo, pp. [3-4] 5 vi 7-282 [note: text complete despite gap in pagination], original pictorial gray green cloth, front panel stamped in black and gold, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. "A philo-semitic fantasy set in the near future about the founding in Palestine of a Jewish state, helped to a healthy birth by the return of the prophet Elijah. The Western nations agree to the Zionist ideal -- essentially to get the Jews off their hands -- and hand an ultimatum to Turkey (then in control of the region). A naval flotilla is dispatched to Constantinople to deal with the Sultan's refusal but retires in the face of opposition. The lone American ship, the Farragut, sends up a balloon with a special cannon that demolishes, from a distance of 30 miles, a city block adjacent to the palace. The Farragut then approaches the city and its cannon 'tore up from their roots four of the finest blocks in the city,' rams other vessels at 40 mph, and secures the Sultan's capitulation to terms. At an initial gathering of Jewish leaders in Palestine, a stranger arises and speaks impressively -- we soon understand that he is Elijah. Among other things, he laments the failure of Jews to embrace Jesus as the true Messiah, saying that a union of the two religions would have aided both groups, which, in separation, have gone astray. That takes the reader up through chapter 2 ... A rather interesting book, dealing chiefly with religion to be sure, but free of the cheap pietism so often found in such things (and mercifully free of the anachronistic Elizabethan pronouns that writers of anything remotely 'Biblical' seem unable to resist). A restrained, knowledgeable and occasionally ironic tone adds to the book's appeal -- as do flashes of eccentricity (e.g., consumption is caused by drinking cow's milk; and its longing for a union of Judaism and Christianity will surely alienate adherents of each!). Its concern with Zionism and matters of reformation and idealism would seem to bring it within the sphere of utopian literature." - Robert Eldridge. Bleiler (1978), p. 27. Reginald 01596. Wright (III) 588. Not in the Eaton catalogue. Spine lean, small damp spots on spine panel and on front panel near outer front joint, a very good copy of a scarce book. (#157197).
Price: $250.00
No statement of printing.