[Rarebooks] Offering: Wilkie Collins

Fri Jun 22 15:27:44 EDT 2012

Offering: Wilkie Collins

The following Wilkie Collins titles are 
available, at a 30% discount from marked prices.
All are later 19th century Uniform one-volume editions in lovely condition.

Each book is available (with images) at the links 
provided. A 30% discount will automatically be applied upon checkout.

1.  COLLINS, Wilkie. ANTONINA; Or, The Fall of 
Rome. London; Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly 1891 
New Edition. Octavo, original green cloth titled 
& decorated in black on front cover, decorated in 
black and titled in gilt on spine panel. Coated 
yellow endpapers. 420 pp + 32 pp publisher's 
catalogue bound in at rear, dated January, 1885. 
Frontispiece with tissue guard, extra engraved 
title page with pictorial vignette (by John 
Gilbert), numerous full-page plates by Alfred 
Concanen. Identical in format to the publisher's 
THE PICCADILLY NOVELS Series. Originally issued 
in three volumes by Bentley in 1850. A very fresh 
copy, clean and tight; very good or better, with 
the spine gilt still very sharp. ¶ Collins' first 
novel, a historical potboiler that reads a bit 
like a guide book to ancient Rome, but 
nonetheless was very popular in a sort of 'it's 
not as dry as Gibbon's Decline and Fall' sort of way.       $125.00

http://www.thompsonrarebooks.com/shop/thompson/303255.html

2.  COLLINS, Wilkie. ARMADALE. London; Chatto & 
Windus, Piccadilly 1891 New Edition. Octavo, 
original green cloth titled & decorated in black 
on front cover, decorated in black and titled in 
gilt on spine panel. Floral endpapers. [662] pp + 
32 pp publisher's catalogue bound in at rear, 
dated June, 1891. Frontispiece with tissue guard 
and Eleven additional full-page illustrations by 
G.H. Thomas. Identical in format to the 
publisher's THE PICCADILLY NOVELS Series. 
Originally issued in two volumes by Smith, Elder 
in 1866. Small (2 mm) worm-hole through the front 
board and the lower margins of the entire text 
(!), but generally and otherwise a very fresh 
copy, clean and tight; very good or better, with 
the spine gilt still very sharp. ¶ Collins' most 
ambitious and longest novel, a complex work 
involving murder, detection, the supernatural, 
criminal conspiracy and the workings of fate. 
Considered by some critics to be the finest of 
his novels, greater even then THE MOONSTONE and 
THE WOMAN IN WHITE.                $145.00

http://www.thompsonrarebooks.com/shop/thompson/303254.html

3.  COLLINS, Wilkie. BASIL. London; Chatto & 
Windus, Piccadilly 1885 New Edition. Octavo, 
original green cloth titled & decorated in black 
on front cover, decorated in black and titled in 
gilt on spine panel. Grey coated endpapers. 344 
pp + 32 pp publisher's catalogue bound in at 
rear, dated January, 1885. Frontispiece with 
tissue guard and numerous full-page plates by Sir 
John Gilbert and M.F. Mahoney. Identical in 
format to the publisher's THE PICCADILLY NOVELS 
Series. Originally issued in three volumes by 
Bentley in 1852. A very fresh copy, clean and 
tight; very good or better, with the spine gilt 
still very sharp. ¶ Collins' second novel, 
regarded as an early example of, if not the 
first, sensation novel.                  $145.00

http://www.thompsonrarebooks.com/shop/thompson/303257.html

4.  COLLINS, Wilkie. THE DEAD SECRET. London; 
Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly 1875 New Edition. 
Octavo, original green cloth titled & decorated 
in black on front cover, decorated in black and 
titled in gilt on spine panel. Yellow coated 
endpapers. 317 pp + 32 pp publisher's catalogue 
bound in at rear, dated October, 1884. 
Frontispiece with tissue guards and With numerous 
full-page engraved plates throughout the text. 
Identical format to the publisher's THE 
PICCADILLY NOVELS Series. Originally issued in 
two volumes by Bradbury and Evans in 1857. 
Corners very slightly knowcked, spine a trifle 
leaned; a bright, very good copy, the spine gilt 
still very sharp. ¶ Detective Fiction. A deathbed 
confession and a female sleuth.            $125.00

http://www.thompsonrarebooks.com/shop/thompson/303251.html

5.  COLLINS, Wilkie. THE FALLEN LEAVES. First 
Series. London; Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly 1886 
New Edition. Octavo, original green cloth titled 
& decorated in black on front cover, decorated in 
black and titled in gilt on spine panel. Floral 
endpapers. 317 pp + 32 pp publisher's catalogue 
bound in at rear, dated September, 1886. Issued 
in the publisher's THE PICCADILLY NOVELS Series. 
Originally issued in three volumes by Chatto & 
Windus in 1879. A very fresh copy, clean and 
tight; very good or better, with the spine gilt 
still very sharp. ¶ One of Collins' scarcest 
titles, but only because it was a hopeless 
failure with the critics and the public. FALLEN 
LEAVES explores the relationships between men and 
women (as did MAN AND WIFE), but mostly it 
focuses on the lives of prostitutes and outcasts. 
The notation "First Series" on the title leaf is 
a misnomer; there were no other series published.                $125.00

http://www.thompsonrarebooks.com/shop/thompson/303252.html

6.  COLLINS, Wilkie. HIDE AND SEEK; Or, The 
Mystery of Mary Grice. London; Chatto & Windus, 
Piccadilly 1876 New Edition. Octavo, original 
green cloth titled & decorated in black on front 
cover, decorated in black and titled in gilt on 
spine panel. Coated yellow endpapers. 356 pp + 32 
pp publisher's catalogue bound in at rear, dated 
September, 1884. Frontispiece and numerous 
full-page plates by Sir John Gilbert and M.F. 
Mahoney. Identical in format to the publisher's 
THE PICCADILLY NOVELS Series, here called NEW 
ILUSTRATED LIBRARY EDITIONS. Originally issued in 
three volumes by Bentley in 1854. A very fresh 
copy, clean and tight; very good or better, with 
the spine gilt still very sharp. ¶ Collins' third 
novel, dedicated to Charles Dickens; the tale of 
a deaf-mute girl named Madonna (who knew?).           $125.00

http://www.thompsonrarebooks.com/shop/thompson/303256.html

7.  COLLINS, Wilkie. JEZEBEL'S DAUGHTER. London; 
Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly No Date [1885] New 
Edition. Octavo, original green cloth titled & 
decorated in black on front cover, decorated in 
black and titled in gilt on spine panel. 
Patterned endpapers. 333 pp + 32 pp publisher's 
catalogue bound in at rear, dated January, 1885. 
Issued in the publisher's THE PICCADILLY NOVELS 
Series. Originally issued in three volumes by 
Chatto & Windus in 1880. Corners slightly knocked 
but a very fresh copy, clean and tight; very good 
or better, with the spine gilt still very sharp. 
¶ Crime novel. Not really detective fiction, but 
the novel does employ the use of poisons and 
includes forensic details similar to detective 
fiction. Also, lunatics.               $125.00

http://www.thompsonrarebooks.com/shop/thompson/303253.html

Thanks for looking. I had one other, THE LAW AND 
THE LADY, which sold yesterday.

---
Michael John Thompson, Antiquarian Bookseller
Imladris
5275 Jerow Road
Hornby Island, BC
Canada V0R 1Z0
Ph:  250-335-1182
Fax: 250-335-2241

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