STORIES WEIRD AND WONDERFUL. London: Chatto & Windus, 1889. Octavo, pp. [1-4: title leaf and contents leaf] [1] 2-316 + 32-page publisher's catalogue dated "Mar., 1902" inserted at rear, publisher's pictorial limp blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in brown and white, publisher's monogram stamped in brown on rear panel, white endpapers with floral pattern printed in gold. First edition, first printing, later issue. Muddock's first collection of sensation fiction, twenty-two stories, most of which are supernatural. Published in June 1889 in boards for two shillings and in limp cloth for 2/6, this being one of the latter. The earliest copies have inserted publisher's catalogue dated April 1889. Better known under his later pseudonym, Dick Donovan, Muddock was prolific and successful, his career a mirror in some ways of his own wide and adventurous travels about the empire. "A natural storyteller, he had a strong narrative drive that was sometimes undermined by awkward, repetitious phraseology. Consequently, his Victorian ghost stories lack the subtlety of Le Fanu or Riddell, but they have a gruesome sense of fun." - Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 130. In terms of rarity alone, the present collection certainly belongs in any top ten of Victorian supernatural collections, though his second collection, TALES OF TERROR, published ten years later, would not be far behind. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, p. 68. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 162 (limp blue cloth issue with ads dated April 1889). Wilson, Shadows in the Attic, p. 192. Reginald 10480. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978). Topp, Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks 1849-1905, III, p. 176. Wolff 4968 (limp blue cloth issue with ads dated March 1902). Owner's signature and date on the verso of the front free endpaper. Spine panel stamping dull, a clean, tight, very good copy. Enclosed in a custom quarter blue leather clamshell box with leather spine label. (#178224).
Price: $3,500.00
No statement of printing.