"CAN SUCH THINGS BE?" OR THE WEIRD OF THE BERESFORDS. A STUDY IN OCCULT WILL-POWER. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1890 [i.e. 1889]. Octavo, pp. [1-5] 6 [7] 8 [8a-8b] [9] 10-250, publisher's reddish brown cloth with blue cloth shelf back, spine panel stamped in gold, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed, white endpapers with floral pattern printed in gray. First edition. Issued simultaneously by Routledge in cloth and in yellowback format (see Topp, p. 401, not noting this deluxe binding). This copy "Sensational weird thriller of murder, mayhem and madness embellished with numerous supernatural elements, including a family curse, ghostly visitations, a spectral violin with music, etc. Horror piled upon horror, as was the convention of the time, but entertaining as an example of the 'raw head and bloody bones' side of Victorian weird fiction, lurid and unsophisticated." - Robert Knowlton. Bleiler (1978), p. 74. Reginald 05477. Wolff 2264 (recording the yellowback issue). Small water spot on front cover, spine panel and upper edges show some age-darkening, mild foxing to endpapers, a very good or better copy. (#167313).
Price: $450.00
No statement of printing.