DOOM! AN ATLANTIC EPISODE. New York: George Munro, Publisher, 17 to 27 Vandewater Street, n.d. [1887]. Small octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-85 [86: blank] + [20] pages of ads, original pictorial wrappers. First US edition? Issued as Munro's Seaside Library Pocket Edition, number 779 (7 June 1887). Victorian shilling shocker. Flavian Hope, a wealthy, well-educated, idealistic young Englishman with an ambition to some day enter Parliament travels to Russia where he falls in love with Nathalie Sarovsky, a lovely young Nihilist. Hope joins the revolutionists but his devotion to their cause is a sham as he participates in their activities only to be near the woman he loves. An operation goes awry when Hope fails to carry out his part of the mission, and Nathalie and several members of her cell are apprehended and executed for their plot against the Czar. Hope, fool, rogue and now coward, returns to England in disguise but is not happy there. He changes his name and emigrates to America to start a new life. Aboard the steamship Atlantis he falls in love with a wealthy American girl who agrees to become his wife, despite his dark past. Hope believes his past is now behind him and his future appears bright. But when the ship docks in New York, Hope's body is discovered his cabin along with the knife used to kill him and a scrap of paper with a few words written in Russian, which translated read, "By order of the Third Section. Remember Nathalie." Hubin (1994), p. 522. Topp, Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks, 1849-1905, Volume III, p. 144. Not in Wolff (who had a good selection of McCarthy's books). Wrappers chipped, leaf of ads preceding title leaf missing, two leaves of ads at rear with pieces torn away, a defective reading copy. (#167255).
Price: $25.00
No statement of printing.