AT MIDNIGHT AND OTHER STORIES. London, New York and Melbourne: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1897. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii [viii] [1-2] 3-305 [306: blank] [307-310: ads] [311-312: blank] [note: first and last leaves are blanks], three inserted plates, original decorated blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, all edges untrimmed. First edition. The title novelette, "At Midnight," is a locked-room mystery in which people and lights appear and disappear in a "haunted" chamber of an old English country house. Popular fiction, female-centered domestic dramas, for the most part. Several of the stories have nautical (dockside) settings. Others are set in Australia, where the author moved from England when she was young. She had a fairly prolific career but ended up in the kind of poverty her characters often endure. Her books are scarce -- and have been for a while; as Wolff laments: "I have had little luck in collecting her." Hubin (1994), p. 127. Adey, Locked Room Murders, p. 43. Wolff 1055 (holding an 1899 yellowback issue). Not in Sadleir. Mild spine lean, inner front hinge a bit tender, a very good copy. (#171873).
Price: $450.00
No statement of printing.