THE INVASION OF 1883, A CHAPTER FROM THE BOOK OF FATE. Glasgow: James Maclehose, 1876. Small octavo, pp. [1-5] 6-62 [complete with half title leaf], Rebound in nineteenth century brown cloth, spine panel lettered in gold. First edition. An "anti-Chesney story; once again the German invaders are totally repulsed, thanks to a reformed Army system." - Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 7. Bound with a first edition (presumed first issue with no copyright notice on the title page) of Sir George Tomkyns Chesney's THE BATTLE OF DORKING: REMINISCENCES OF A VOLUNTEER. FROM BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE MAY 1871 (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1871), "the first significant British imaginary war story and also the finest and most influential example of the subgenre." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 412. The volume also includes a probable first edition of Henry William Pullen's THE FIGHT AT DAME EUROPA'S SCHOOL: SHEWING HOW THE GERMAN BOY THRASHED THE FRENCH BOY; AND HOW THE ENGLISH BOY LOOKED ON (London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co. Salisbury: Brown and Co., n.d. [1870]), an immensely popular commentary on the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 cast in the form of a school yard dispute (reportedly 193,000 copies were printed between 21 October 1870 and April 1874, but the first printing consisted of only 500 copies). Pullen's allegory elicited about 200 publications in reply and this volume includes three of them; JOHN JUSTIFIED: A REPLY TO THE "FIGHT IN DAME EUROPA'S SCHOOL" ... (1870), "WHY JOHNNY DIDN'T INTERFERE." AN ANSWER TO "THE FIGHT IN DAME EUROPA'S SCHOOL." (1871), and 'WHICH SHOULD JOHN HAVE HELPED?" A CONVERSATION BETWEEN DAME EUROPA AND MRS. FAIRPLAY ... (1871). Clarke, Voices Prophesying War: Future Wars 1763-3749 (1992), pp. 33-4 and p. 226. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, pp. 83. Bleiler (1978), p. 42. Reginald 07717. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978) or Locke's Spectrum series. The six pamphlets are bound in a single volume without their original paper wrappers; all are in very good condition. (#90220).
Price: $450.00
No statement of printing.