THE VICIOUS VIRTUOSO. London, New York: F. Tennyson Neely, Publisher, [1898]. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [1-5] 6-232 [233-254: ads], original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in red and silver. First edition. Exotic, anti-Christian romance novel in which Eugene, a distinguished but unscrupulous French violinist, while on holiday in Egypt meets Zuleika, his dragoman's virtuous fifteen-year old sister. She falls in love with Eugene. He fathers her child but refuses to marry her. The following year the baby dies. Zuleika dies of a broken heart and Eugene is killed by Zuleika's brother. Embedded in the novel is a history (pages 109-137), translated from hieroglyphics under hypnosis in a hidden chamber of the Great Pyramid by Saïd, Zuleika's brother, of the Rhonnou, an ancient Egyptian race that was greatly advanced both spiritually and scientifically and produced a society in which everyone lived well. [It] is destroyed by organized religion." - Sargent, p. 116. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 142. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 116. Bleiler (1948), p. 182 (citing a later edition). Reginald 09138. Not in Bleiler (1978). Not in Wright, American Fiction 1976-1900. A bright, nearly fine copy. A scarce book. (#170137).
Price: $500.00
No statement of printing.