L. W. Currey, Inc.

Barlow, James William. THE IMMORTALS' GREAT QUEST. Translated from an Unpublished Manuscript in the Library of a Continental University [i.e. written by] by James William Barlow. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1909. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-v] vi-vii [viii-ix] x-xii [xiii-xiv] [1] 2-177 [178: printer's imprint] [179-184: ads] [ note: first leaf is a blank], original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, bottom edge untrimmed. Second edition. "Immortal race on Venus striving for ever greater knowledge of the origin of the universe and on the destiny of mankind." - Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 145. "Cyclical life -- grow old, grow young, grow old again. Society based on this fact. No reproduction. No death from natural causes" - Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 89. A "delightful little work." - Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 65. "A short utopian novel with imaginative touches (the planet's hundred million inhabitants arrived all at once on the planet from somewhere else; if an individual's suffering reaches a certain level he simply vanishes and reappears at the planet's temperate South Pole; the northern and southern hemispheres of the planet are separated by a permanent wide belt of hurricane at the equator, impassable except by submarine) but the tone of the work is uncertain: it invokes Swift (the story is set contemporaneously with the appearance of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS) in its contempt for mankind but it's not clear how much of the admiration for the alien culture is sincere, sarcastic or ambiguous." - Robert Eldridge. This work was first published in 1891 in Dublin by William McGee as HISTORY OF A WORLD OF IMMORTALS WITHOUT A GOD under the pseudonym Antares Skorpios. This London edition is quite scarce; the Dublin edition is rare. Bleiler (1978), p. 15. Reginald 00878A. Private owner's bookplate on the front paste-down. Light foxing to endpapers and text block, a bright, very good copy. (#167265).

Price: $1,250.00