A PLUNGE INTO SPACE ... Second Edition, with a Preface by Jules Verne. London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co., [1891]. Octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-240 [241-248: ads] [note: first and last leaves of advertising matter, (A)1 and Q8, excised, apparently most copies of the clothbound issues lack these leaves], frontispiece and illustrated title on integral leaf inserted between half title leaf and contents leaf, original pictorial brown cloth, front and spine panels stamped in light blue, black, dark green, red, and gold, publisher's device stamped in black on rear panel, white endpapers with pattern of publisher's monograms printed in green. 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. 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 with list of titles in "Warne's Crown Library" on page [243] expanded from 29 to 30 titles, last being "Mary Barton. By Mrs. Gaskell." Journey to Mars via steel globe, "motivated by insulating it from Earth's gravity" (Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 61). 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, Voyages in Space, 56. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 84. Bleiler (1978), p. 53. Reginald 03637. Prize label (dated 1900) affixed to front paste-down, binding rubbed at head and tail of spine panel and corners, some soiling to cloth and a bit of darkening to spine panel, hairline crack along inner rear hinge (which is still tight), a good copy of this handsome volume intended for the children's book market. (#172147).
Price: $850.00
"SECOND EDITION" on title page.