(#167251) THE ORPHAN OF SPACE: A TALE OF DOWNFALL. Reginald Glossop.

THE ORPHAN OF SPACE: A TALE OF DOWNFALL. London: G. MacDonald & Company Limited, 1926. Octavo, pp. [1-10] [1] 2-310, original orange cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. A cautionary future war novel, a mix of hard-core science fiction and mysticism, that depicts the "terrible results of the Yellow Peril combined with Bolshevism." Ultimately, the allies destroy Moscow, the enemy's seat of power, with an atomic bomb. "A fantastic tale of a future period when a wicked dictator is favoured by Satan." - Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 53. "The sort of novel M. P. Shiel might have written had he forgotten how to write... imaginative, but amateurish and slightly eccentric." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 896. "...lamely prefigures C. S. Lewis's RANSOM trilogy in the conceit that Earth is a diseased planet barred from the higher spheres. The plot concerns the collaboration of a kind of spirit of Gaia with the ghost of a long-dead Chinese scientist to pass the secret of atomic energy on to the protagonists in 1935, so they can cleanse the planet of its ailment." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 499. Clareson, Science-Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 344. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, pp. 92-3. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 179. Bleiler (1978), p. 83. Reginald 06050. Faint early owner's signature on front paste-down with light offset on front free endpaper. A bright, tight, very good copy. A pretty nice copy of a rather uncommon book that rarely turns up in decent condition. (#167251).

Price: $150.00

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