MOTH AND RUST AND OTHER STORIES. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1902. Octavo, pp. [1-10] 1-307 [308], publisher's decorated burgundy cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, all edges trimmed. First U.S. edition, variant issue, variant binding. This copy does not have a blank leaf following page [308], the binding does not have the publisher's imprint at the base of the spine panel, and all edges are timmed. Collects "Moth and Rust," a short novel, and three short stories, "Geoffrey's Wife," a poignant and horrific tale of newlyweds in Paris; "The Pitfall," an acerbic critique of the Victorian idealization of women; and "Let Loose," a weird and semi-vampiric tale, which appears only in this edition, not in the English (Murray,1902) edition. "Let Loose" is a sophisticated antiquarian ghost story, featuring many of the standard motifs of the genre -- a narrative frame, an ecclesiastical setting, a stolidly rational hero, a pet that senses the uncanny before the hero does -- in a skillfully constructed story that delivers tidbits of wit, wisdom, pathos and humor along with the main dish of supernatural horror. Is it a vampire story? If so, it represents a novel variation on the theme. It is certainly an admirable story. Carter, The Vampire in Literature, p. 59. Frost, The Monster with a Thousand Faces: Guises of the Vampire in Myth and Literature, p. 51. Bleiler (1978), p. 43. Not in Reginald (1979; 1992). 1906 Christmas gift inscription on front free endpaper. Cloth worn at spine ends and corner tips, a few upper corners of leaves toward the rear dog-eared, a sound, good copy. (#179433).
Price: $150.00
"First Edition published October, 1902" on copyright page.