THE THREE IMPOSTERS: or The Transmutations
Unique copy of the first edition of Machen's impossibly eerie episodic novel, in an eerie handmade vernacular dust jacket, from the library of actor Wyndham Goldie.
Near fine.
"[T]he voice of the worm that gnaws at last the very heart of the oak, the voice of stone grinding on stone, and the voice of the conquest of Time."
Published as no. XIX in John Lane's Keynotes series, THE THREE IMPOSTERS is a maze of horrors and nested narratives, replete with cultic murders, antique rituals, and obscure orgies, culminating in a dreadful scene from which Machen grudgingly consented, at the publisher's request, to remove the word "entrails." The arrest and trial of Oscar Wilde, with whom John Lane's publishing ventures were heavily associated in the press, inspired Lane's newfound timidity regarding frightful goings-on, graphically depicted; the remainder of the book's gruesome contents were, however, left uncensored. With the original painted jacket, striking example of book ownership intervention.
Read more: Wendell Harris, John Lane's Keynotes Series and the Fiction of the 1890s.
London / Boston: John Lane / Roberts Bros, 1895. 7.5'' x 4.75''. Original dark green and grey decorative cloth with gilt-lettered spine, designed by Aubrey Beardsley. In vivid yellow handmade dust jacket with grey and orange painted lettering, with title "The Three Imposters: Tales by Arthur Machen." 290 pages followed by 16 pages of publisher's advertisements. Bookplate of F. Wyndham Goldie to front paste-down. Most leaves unopened; shallow chipping to edges of several clumsily opened leaves. Small closed tear to front free endpaper.