THE RETURN. London: Edward Arnold, 1910. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-312, original dark green cloth, front panel stamped in white, spine panel stamped in gold, bottom edge untrimmed. First edition. First issue without the inserted publisher's catalogue. The author's fourth book and second novel. "The protagonist goes to sleep in a graveyard and takes on the appearance of an eighteenth-century suicide; rejected by his family and friends he is forced to reconstruct his identity, uncertain whether he must become a psychological as well as a physical replica of the dead man. An unusual exercise in speculative existentialism." - Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-58. "Most interesting, handled more directly than is usually the case with de la Mare, although much is still left to the reader's imagination." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 499. The author revised the text in 1922, toning down the supernaturalism, and this text was the basis of reprints until the recent (1997) Dover reissue which utilized the text of the first edition. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, pp. 65-6. Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 117-21. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 4-89. Wilson, Shadows in the Attic, p. 177. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 59. Reginald 04032. A bright, clean, nearly fine copy. A superior copy of a scarce book. (#171169).
Price: $450.00
No statement of printing.