A PLUNGE INTO SPACE ... Second Edition, with a Preface by Jules Verne. London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co., [1891]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1-7] 8-240 [241-246 ads] [first gathering is four leaves; signature Q is six leaves], frontispiece and illustrated title on integral leaf inserted between half title leaf and contents leaf, original pictorial blue gray cloth, front and spine panels stamped in white, black, dark green, red, and gold, publisher's device stamped in black on rear panel, yellow coated endpapers. Second edition. The front panel of this binding shows a man descending by parachute toward the rampart of a fortress. Copies of the "second edition" occur with and without some or all of the preliminary and terminal leaves printing the publisher's advertisements excised, and have title pages dated 1891 or have the date erased from the title pages (the former presumed to be earlier than the latter). The settings of signatures [A] and Q (first and last signatures) of this edition differ from those of the 1890 edition. This issue no advertisements preceding half title leaf and the date on title page is erased. Added material comprises a conjugate pair of leaves with frontispiece and illustrated title leaf tipped in on leaf [A]4 , a dedication leaf "To Jules Verne" [(A)5] which is integral with contents leaf [(A)4], and "To My English Readers" [(A)6] which is integral with half title leaf [(A)3]. The ads in this edition are slightly changed: the list of titles in "Warne's Crown Library" on page [243] is expanded from 29 to 30 titles, the last being "Mary Barton. By Mrs. Gaskell." Martian civilization is utopian but in decline. A historically important interplanetary novel bridging Verne and Wells. "Much sentimentality, but historically interesting, halfway position between Verne ... and Wells." - Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, p. 41. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-53; (1981) 1-50; and (2004) II-288. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 505. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 214. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 49. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 61. Locke, Voyages in Space, 56. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 84. Bleiler (1978), p. 53. Reginald 03637. The front free endpaper is missing, a tight, clean, very good copy. A superior copy of this handsome volume intended for the children's book market, with interior remarkably clean and the front panel very bright. This book rarely shows up in better condition. (#171952).
Price: $450.00
"SECOND EDITION" on title page.