KEARY, Charles Francis.

The Two Lancrofts ... in three Volumes ...

London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. ... 1893. 3 vols., 8vo., with the half-titles; original purple cloth, blocked and lettered in silver with a wavy band of four lines down the front of the cover, spines uniformly faded, endpapers foxed, but an unusual binding and an attractive copy. First edition. This novel begins as a tale of college life, but proceeds as the story of a young man’s initiation into the world of letters. Keary (whose authorial specialities were numismatics and Scandinavian history) was known for eliding autobiographical material with his fictions, and this novel is no exception. Certainly Willie’s period as a struggling young writer in Paris finds echo in Keary’s own interest in the French naturalism of Balzac and Zola, while the theatrical figures of the final section share the author’s own preoccupation with the plays of Ibsen. Contemporary reviewers claimed to discern in Keary’s fiction thinly veiled portaits of literary figures of the day. Two copies only on OCLC.

• GBP 650.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: E478

• bookseller: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)