Our Radicals. A Tale of Love and Politics

Burnaby, Fred (Edited by J. Percival Hughes)

Verlag: London Richard Bentley and Son 1886, 1886

Beschreibung

First edition. 2 volumes, 255 and 261 pages respectively, with the folding illustration of a page of the original manuscript present and in good order to vol 1. The books are bound in the publisher's dark blue cloth, lettered in gilt with bevelled edges to the boards, the cloth is quite rubbed and marked, the spines are unevenly sunned and slightly cocked. The text blocks are slightly foxed, dusty and age toned, there is cracking at the gutters and at points throughout the block, and vol 2 is in a fragile state, the glue holding the title page in place has become desiccated and the page has detached as have pages 257-261. One gets the impression that the publisher had them hastily thrown together to capitalise on Burnaby's celebrity status as a national hero at the expense of production quality. Published posthumously from an unfinished manuscript, it's a slender future war story, based on the Fenian menace of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, written in swash-buckling, jingoistic terms as a Burnaby-like hero saves the day while the mealy-mouthed politicians attempt to sell Old England cheap down the river. There's sex, poisoning, explosions and action aplenty, not to mention interesting futuristic elements such as a channel tunnel and another tunnel connecting Dublin to Holyhead. Considering Burnaby's fame at the time the book is surprisingly uncommon as a first edition, both in commerce and institutional holdings. The comparative rarity is presumably attributable to the poor quality of production rather than an unusually small initial print run. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 6735

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Our Radicals. A Tale of Love and Politics

Verlag: London Richard Bentley and Son 1886

Erscheinungsdatum: 1886

Auflage: 1. Auflage