L. W. Currey, Inc.

Barham, Richard James (writing as "Thomas Ingoldsby"). THE INGOLDSBY LEGENDS OR MIRTH AND MARVELS BY THOMAS INGOLDSBY ESQUIRE. [FIRST]-THIRD SERIES. London: Richard Bentley, 1840-1842-1847. Octavo, three volumes: [i-v] vi-vii [viii-ix] x-xii [xiii-xiv] [1] 2-338 [339] [340: printer's imprint]; [i-v] vi-vii [viii-x] [1] 2-288; [i-iii] iv-vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-364 , nineteen inserted plates comprising seventeen etchings by Buss (one), George Cruikshank (eight), and John Leech (eight), and two engraved portraits of Barham, one after Lane, the other after "Dalton" (i.e. Rev. Dalton Barham), original decorated brown cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold and blind, rear panels stamped in blind, half-title leaves present in all three volumes, inserted etched title leaves (the first printed in orange-red and black, the others printed in burnt-umber and black), edges untrimmed, yellow coated endpapers. Second edition of volume one, first editions of volumes two and three. Limited to 1000 (?), 1500, and 1500 copies respectively. Material originally published in BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY, collected in book form in three volumes (1840-1847). Classic collection of Victorian burlesques on Romantic conventions, and of "chimney-corner" tales. Mixture of prose and verse, several humorous ghost stories e.g. "Jerry Jarvis's Wig" and a straight tale of terror "Singular Passage in the Life of the Late Henry Harris, D. D.," an effectively Hoffmannesque piece. Parodies the "Blackwood" school of fiction with considerable wit and style. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 2-14. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 881. Bleiler (1978), p. 15. Not in Reginald (1979; 1992). Sadleir 156c (binding a), e, and f. Cohn 44. A very good to fine set. The plates in the first volume are darkened and quite foxed, as is the inserted title leaf, there is a short closed tear along the outer front joint; the plates in volume two are lightly foxed, but it is quite a nice copy; volume three is lovely. (#170395).

Price: $1,500.00