IDOLATRY: A ROMANCE. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1874. 12mo, pp. [i-iii] iv [5] 6 [7] 8-372, flyleaves at front and rear, original green pictorial bevel-edged cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, rear panel stamped in blind , brown coated endpapers. First edition. Hawthorne's uncommon second novel (his first was BRESSANT [1873]), a weird fantasy with Byronic hero and dark priestly villain, enchanted rings, tombs and crypts in a strange house on the New Jersey Palisades, immurement, incest, murder and revenge. Bassan, Hawthorne's Son: The Life and Literary Career of Julian Hawthorne, pp. 92-98. Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, pp. 456-7. Wright (II) 1133. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978) or Reginald (1979; 1992). Not in Hubin (1994). Cloth a bit frayed and worn at head and tail of spine panel, corner tips lightly rubbed, inner rear hinge has hairline crack but is still firm, a tight, bright, very good copy. (#78041).
Price: $125.00
No statement of printing.