THE POLISH JEW, AND OTHER TALES (THE ORIGINAL WORK UPON WHICH THE PLAY OF "THE BELLS" IS FOUNDED) AND OTHER TALES. London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler, n.d. [1873]. Small octavo, pp. [i-v] vi-xi [xii-xiv] [1] 2-229 [230: blank], nineteenth-century three quarter red calf and marbled boards. First edition of this collection. This collection was first published in August 1873 by Ward, Lock & Tyler in paper wrappers as number twelve of their "Beeton's Erckmann-Chatrian Library." It followed earlier separate editions of THE POLISH JEW published by John C. Hotten (1872) and (as THE BELLS) by Tinsley Bros (1872), Ward, Lock & Tyler (1873) and others. This expanded work includes the text of the three-act dramatic version of THE POLISH JEW (a.k.a. THE BELLS) and ten short stories, including weird tales "The Invisible Eye" and "Hans Schnapps' Spy Glass" (a.k.a. "The Wonderful Glass"). The ten short stories are translations of tales selected from CONTES ET ROMANS POPULAIRES (Paris 1867). "Their best known work in translation is LE JUIF POLONAIS (1871; translated as THE POLISH JEW), describing the psychological decline of a murderer; in its long-running stage version, THE BELLS, this became Henry Irving's most celebrated role ... They wrote many supernatural and fantasy short stories ... These were much admired -- in their original French texts -- by M. R. James and other connoisseurs of French romantic Gothic fiction." - Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997), pp. 319-20. "Erckmann-Chatrian stand apart from most of their contemporaries on the Continent who wrote in this vein. They did not essay the conte cruel, nor go in for paranoid fantasies, such as those of Maupassant. Their tales are simple and straightforward, with all the effects up front. By rights they should have dated severely. The pleasant surprise awaiting those who dig out their tales is that they haven't." - Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 144-45. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 612. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 682. Bleiler (1978), p. 69 (citing the 1871 Hotten edition). Topp, Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks, 1849-1905, II, pp. 118-19. The binding has been professionally restored. A very good copy. (#159951).
Price: $250.00
No statement of printing.