Allan's Wife
and Other Tales

by H. Rider Haggard
Illustrated by Maurice Greiffenhagen
and Charles Kerr

Spencer Blackett First Edition

Description: Hardback book published by Spencer Blackett (UK) in 1889. The date at the bottom of the title page is 1889, the year of first publication, so this should be the first edition as the copyright page does not list any additional printings. A collection containing the title story Allan's Wife (a novel), Hunter Quatermain's Story (a novelette), A Tale of Three Lions (a novelette), and Long Odds (a short story). Note: this book was professionally rebound with a sturdy cloth binding with a gold and blue spine label, new endpapers and marbled page edges, head and foot bands at top and bottom of spine, and is now in almost like new condition. I bought this already rebound, so I don't know precisely what was done to the book but the book is very nice.

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Synopsis (for Allan's Wife): "I have often thought (Mr. Quatermain's manuscript begins) that I would set down on paper the events connected with my marriage, and the loss of my most dear wife. Many years have now passed since that event, and to some extent time has softened the old grief, though Heaven knows it is still keen enough. On two or three occasions I have even begun the record. Once I gave it up because the writing of it depressed me beyond bearing, once because I was suddenly called away upon a journey, and the third time because a Kaffir boy found my manuscript convenient for lighting the kitchen fire. But now that I am at leisure here in England, I will make a fourth attempt. If I succeed, the story may serve to interest some one in after years when I am dead and gone; before that I should not wish it to be published. It is a wild tale enough, and suggests some curious reflections." Published after King Solomon's Mines and Allan Quatermain, this 140-page novella offers another twist on the African adventure theme involving his second wife Stella. The writing also offers insights into Allan's early life, his marriage to his childhood sweetheart and their son Harry.

Condition Binding - near fine, relatively new binding and endpapers, I assume the page edges were trimmed to neaten them before they were marbled, pages only lightly tanned with a few pages showing light soiling or spotting, a very nice copy of a first edition that is now more than129 years old. Dust jacket - none.

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