OMEGA: THE LAST DAYS OF THE WORLD. New York: The Cosmopolitan Publishing Company, [1894]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-287 [288: blank] [note: first leaf is a blank], numerous illustrations by Jean Paul Laurens, Saunier, Meaulle, Vogel and others, original two-part blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First edition in English. A translation of LA FIN DU MONDE, Flammarion's best and most imaginative novel, a panoramic view of humanity from the twenty-fifth century to the far future, Stapledonian in scope. "A work of remarkable scope and vision, one of the earliest and most ambitious cosmic histories, certainly worth reading, if only as a historical document. Of considerable historical importance, since it was probably read and absorbed by authors as diverse as W. H. Hodgson and Olaf Stapledon." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 778. LA FIN DU MONDE is Flammarion's "boldest scientific romance ... an epic of the future. Although it is as much essay as story, this is a notable work, akin to H. G. Wells's THE TIME MACHINE (1895) and William Hope Hodgson's THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND (1908) in presenting a striking vision of the end of the world." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 432. Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 1-73 and (2004) II-407. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 639. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 299. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 84. Locke, Voyages in Space 74. Survey of Science Fiction Literature IV, pp. 1592-95. Bleiler (1978), p. 74. Reginald 05459. Early Christmas gift inscription dated 1894 on front free endpaper. Cloth worn at spine ends and corner tips, a sound, very good copy. An uncommon book rarely found in nice condition. (#89834).
Price: $750.00
No statement of printing.