THE WAR IN THE AIR AND PARTICULARLY HOW MR. BERT SMALLWAYS FARED WHILE IT LASTED. London: George Bell and Sons, 1908. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] vii [viii] [1] 2-389 [390: printer's imprint] [391-392: ads], sixteen inserted plates with illustrations by A. C. Michael, original blue cloth, front panel stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold and blind, color pictorial paper inlay on front panel, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. First edition, later binding. THE WAR IN THE AIR "is a remarkable rarity in being a future war novel which uses the viewpoint of ordinary people and deals primarily with the effects of aerial warfare on those ordinary people ... the shape of Wells's argument brings him to a conclusion very different from that characteristic of the future war novels written before 1914: civilization is virtually obliterated, and the Scientific Age is brought to an end." - Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 72. Kingsley Amis (New Maps of Hell) terms this novel the "most forceful" of Wells's scientific romances. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-170; (1981) 1-178; (1987) 1-104; (1995) 104; and (2004) II-1233. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2339. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 801. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 36. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War 1763-1984, p. 236. Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 145. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, pp. 227-28. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 1179. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2407-10. Bleiler (1978), p. 205. Reginald 15106. Currey (2002), p. 425 (binding C). Hammond B11. Wells 35. Wells Society 36. Cloth rubbed at spine ends, corner tips and along outer joints, hairline crack along inner rear hinge which is a bit tender, a very good copy. Overall, a clean, attractive copy. (#80429).
Price: $100.00
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