Beschreibung
No signatures. Small 5mm chip to corner of dust-jacket. Light rubbing and dust-stains to dust-jacket. Dust-jacket protected in archival mylar cover. A nice copy of this title, uncommon in a good dust-jacket. ; [12 (first leaf blank)], 386, [2 (blank)] pages. Red cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine. Page dimensions: 216 x 137mm. First edition of this collection, the story "Bush-Whacking" and 2 other stories had appeared previously in a collection with a similar title published by a different publisher, William Blackwood and Sons, in 1901, "Bush Whacking and Other Sketches". The two volumes though are substantially different collections. The material common to both makes up less than half of each of these two volumes. The common material consists of these 3 stories: (1) "Bush Whacking" or "Bush-Whacking". The body of the text is substantially the same in both volumes (but see e.g. "rumours" vs. "rumour" in passage quoted below), although in the 1929 volume the story is divided into two parts with part-titles - "Part I - Recollections of the Pahang Disturbances of December, 1890 - September, 1891" and "Part II - The Expeditions into the 'Benighted Lands' July to August, 1894, and March to June, 1895". In both volumes the story is in 3 sections, sections 1 and 2 together making up Part I in the 1929 edition. "Bush-Whacking" is in the 1929 volume on pages 1-134, and in the 1901 volume on pages 1-108 (The 1901 volume is printed in a smaller font.) (2) "Wan Bey, Princess of the Blood". This story is in the 1929 volume on pages 159-192, and in the 1901 volume on pages 185-213. (3) "The Past of the Schooner". This story is in the 1929 volume on pages 339-364, and in the 1901 volume on pages 249-270. There are another 8 stories in the 1929 volume that are not present in the 1901 volume: Albert Trevor (pp.135-158); Piloting Princes (pp. 193-224); A Study in Despair (pp. 225-248); The Home-Coming of Vincent Brooke (pp. 249-274); "The Very Devil" (pp. 275-286); How Bondage Came to the Jungle (pp. 287-308); "The Breath Upon the Spark" (pp. 309-340); A Prince of Old Ceylon (pp. 367-386). "Though written in the guise of fiction, these stories and memories of the early days of British rule in the Malay States have the ring of truth and are drawn from the author's own experience of the natives of Malay and their jungle home [. . .] Only the author of 'The Downfall of the Gods' and 'The Further Side of Silence' could have written these things; for no other man has the same knowledge, sympathy, and command of his subject." - from dust-jacket blurb. "It is nearly ten o'clock in the morning, and the glare upon the smooth surface of the water is blinding. On either hand, at a distance of some three hundred yards, the jungle rises in vast tangles of blended greens and blacks, with dim bronze shadows lying upon the stream under the overhanging branches. [. . .] You might think that the whole heat of the universe was concentrated in the gut of that forest-bound reach of river." - page 7. "The launch is still labouring up-stream, with the same freight of tired human beings. It is early morning again a few days later, and the mist is only partially dispelled by the first watery rays of sunshine peeping slantways through the tree-tops on the river's eastern bank. News of battle has come aboard at each halting-place - rumours ["rumour" in the 1901 edition] of a Sikh stockade surprised before the dawn, of violent deaths borne swiftly to sweeping men, of disaster, of failure, of fear, an ever-thickening cloud of inchoate report." - page 15. Sir Hugh Charles Clifford (1866-1941), was a British colonial administrator in Malaya and other countries. "During his service in Malaya and afterwards he wrote numerous stories, reflections and novels primarily about Malayan life, many of them imbued with an ambivalent nostalgia. His last posting was, for him, a welcome return to the Malaya he loved, as Governor of the Straits Settlements and British High Commissio. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 21900
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