A PASSING MADNESS. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1897. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1] 2-302 [303-304: blank], publisher's decorated blue cloth, front panel stamped in gold and blind, spine panel stamped in gold, all edges untrimmed. First edition. A strong-willed, weak-minded young woman accidentally poisons and kills her sick brother. The dead man's physician is blamed for his death, but all ends well when Joan finally admits what she has done after her vigil at the side of her dead brother during which her dead father's ghost appears and speaks a single word: "Confess." This is not a really a supernatural novel: Joan has "a passing madness;" and the story has no similarities whatsoever with THE BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE. Marryat, daughter of the famous mid-Victorian nautical author Frederick Marryat, was a popular late-Victorian author and enthusiastic spiritualist who wrote domestic dramas and some occult and supernatural fiction and nonfiction. Hubin (1994), p. 552. Spine lean, some mild rubs to cloth, a bright, tight, very good copy. A very scarce book. (#171708).
Price: $1,000.00
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