L. W. Currey, Inc.

Elliot, Frances; May Crommelin (Maria Henrietta de la Cherois-Crommelin); and E. M. Abdy-Williams (Mrs. E. M. Abdy-Williams Wishaw). THE RED CARDINAL: A ROMANCE ... [with] BROWN-EYES ... [with] FOREWARNED! Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith ... London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co. ...; J. W. Arrowsmith ... London: Griffith & Farran ...; London: W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. ..., 1885; 1884; 1885. Small octavo, three volumes in one: pp. [1-4] [1] 2-182; [1-4] [1] 2-184; [1-5] 6-126, late nineteenth-century red leather and marbled boards. First one-volume edition of THE RED CARDINAL, first publication of BROWN-EYES as a book, and the first edition of FOREWARNED! This edition of Elliot's THE RED CARDINAL was preceded by a two-volume edition published in 1884 under the pseudonym of "Florentine." It is a society romance with psychological conflicts exacerbated by a family curse. This edition of Crommelin's BROWN-EYES was preceded by its appearance as the 1882 ARROWSMITH CHRISTMAS ANNUAL. It is a sensational romance about a child "who is stolen from her home along the Thames in revenge against her father by a woman whose marriage he had thwarted" (Loeber and Loeber C501). By far the rarest of the three is Abdy-Williams' shilling shocker FOREWARNED! in which a young woman discovers that her husband is a member of a secret society and she must join it or die by the hand of "he who first learns that we are betrayed." In this case it is the woman's husband who must kill her. This is an early psychological suspense novel with false supernaturalism (Topp IX, p. 100). All three books are bound without their original covers. THE RED CARDINAL is bound without the six pages of publisher's advertisements; the others have no advertising matter -- if any was present -- and are otherwise complete. The binding is a bit shaken, but each book is tight and in very good condition. (#171093).

Price: $350.00