THE GERMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND IN 1875, AND BATTLE OF DORKING; OR, REMINISCENCES OF A VOLUNTEER, DESCRIBING THE ARRIVAL OF THE GERMAN ARMADA -- DESTRUCTION OF THE BRITISH FLEET -- THE DECISIVE BATTLE OF DORKING -- CAPTURE OF LONDON -- DOWNFALL OF THE ENGLISH EMPIRE. By an Eyewitness, in 1925. Reprinted from Blackwood's Magazine. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, n.d. [but 1871]. Octavo, pp. [1-2] 3-62, 63-64: ads, flyleaves at front and rear, inserted frontispiece, publisher's decorated burgundy pebbled cloth, front cover stamped in gold and ruled in blind, rear panel ruled in blind, brown coated endpapers. First printing of the Porter & Coates edition. Issued in cloth and in paper wrappers, this being one of the former. Possibly the first U.S. edition, although the 1871 edition published by G. P. Putnam & Sons may have preceded The most influential future war story. "Before Chesney there had been little effective method in the few tales of the war-to-come that had appeared. After Chesney there were very few of these tales that did not employ the devices that had alarmed a nation, amazed a continent, and annoyed the Prime Minister." - Clarke, Voices ... , p. 34. "The first significant British imaginary war story and also the finest and most influential example of the subgenre." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 412. Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 1-41; (1987) 1-21; (1995) 1-21; and (2004) II-237. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 5. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War: Future Wars 1763-3749 (1992), pp. [27]-56. Clareson, Science-Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 155. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 13 (recording the British edition). Survey of Science Fiction Literature I, pp. 130-32. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, pp. 14-15. Bleiler (1978), p. 42. Reginald 02919C. Small embossed stamp of fantastic fiction collector William Harry Hopkins on the front flyleaf. Cloth worn at spine ends and corners, spine panel faded, inner front hinge just a bit tender, a good or better copy. A scarce edition of this classic in either binding. (#168546).
Price: $150.00
No statement of printing (title leaf verso is blank).