A Beleaguered City by Mrs. Oliphant (First Edition) Includes a Signed Letter
$3,500.00 USD
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A Beleaguered City by Mrs. Oliphant (First Edition) Includes a Signed Letter
$3,500.00 USD
A Beleaguered City by Mrs. Oliphant (First Edition) Includes a Signed Letter
Authors: Mrs. Oliphant
Location: London
Publisher: Published by the Author, Philadelphia
Date: 1880
Edition: First Edition
Features: First Edition. Title page dated 1880. Blue cloth with gilt lettering; patterned endpapers. 267 pp. Publisher's catalog dated December 1879, bound in rear. Includes a laid in signed letter by the author. Very uncommon signature. Margaret Oliphant’s A Beleaguered City stands out as one of the most original works of Victorian supernatural fiction. Unlike traditional ghost stories focused on haunted houses or individuals, Oliphant imagines an entire French town, Semur, besieged by the spirits of the dead. The townspeople are forced to confront questions of morality, faith, and mortality as their daily lives are overturned. Blending her trademark realism with a bold spiritual vision, Oliphant created a haunting tale that explored the tension between rationalism and the unseen world in a way few of her contemporaries dared. Though Oliphant was one of the most prolific writers of the 19th century, producing over ninety novels and countless essays, A Beleaguered City remains one of her most personal works. It paved the way for her later tales of the afterlife, such as The Land of Darkness and The Little Pilgrim. The novella has also won modern critical respect: the literary theorist Tzvetan Todorov singled it out in his classic Introduction à la littérature fantastique as a key work of the fantastic. Today, it’s remembered as a visionary blend of ghost story, social commentary, and spiritual reflection - a gem in the Victorian canon.
Book Condition: Very Good+: A firm copy with slight spine lean. Mild sunning to the spine. Gift inscription and owner's name to the title page.
Notes: Transcription of the included letter: 13 Golf Place St Andrews, N.B. Sept. 6 Dear Mrs. Critch, I am very glad you like Beleaguered City - you will understand that there is a great deal more of me in it than in an ordinary novel, so that I am more than usually pleased when it touches my friends. I really did not think of profit at all, but of sending it out to the many whose sympathy sustains one, though one knows nothing about it. However, I think you mean quite as I am quite aware of the risk. I have the original proof from which a good deal was cut out to make it possible for the new leading - at home, when I shall be, if all is well, in the beginning of October - I will then look it out and see how much it comes to. Could you give me an idea how much it would make as it stands? I suppose you would not want a large volume - I should be glad of an understanding - to work out one or two points if it could be done without injury to the unity of the book. We have had some days of beautiful sunshine here, and my window looks on the links, and the coast, and the hills far away, and the sunset. I never see so much sky anywhere as at St. Andrews, and it makes one feel bigger - (this may be the impertinence of the boys in my voice!) It makes one quite amusing in any case; at least the world looks larger, wider, and greater than when one has only a little prosaic street looking upon one’s road. Kindest regards to Mrs. Critch. My best yours, M. O. W. Oliphant
HCX24790-1
Authors: Mrs. Oliphant
Location: London
Publisher: Published by the Author, Philadelphia
Date: 1880
Edition: First Edition
Features: First Edition. Title page dated 1880. Blue cloth with gilt lettering; patterned endpapers. 267 pp. Publisher's catalog dated December 1879, bound in rear. Includes a laid in signed letter by the author. Very uncommon signature. Margaret Oliphant’s A Beleaguered City stands out as one of the most original works of Victorian supernatural fiction. Unlike traditional ghost stories focused on haunted houses or individuals, Oliphant imagines an entire French town, Semur, besieged by the spirits of the dead. The townspeople are forced to confront questions of morality, faith, and mortality as their daily lives are overturned. Blending her trademark realism with a bold spiritual vision, Oliphant created a haunting tale that explored the tension between rationalism and the unseen world in a way few of her contemporaries dared. Though Oliphant was one of the most prolific writers of the 19th century, producing over ninety novels and countless essays, A Beleaguered City remains one of her most personal works. It paved the way for her later tales of the afterlife, such as The Land of Darkness and The Little Pilgrim. The novella has also won modern critical respect: the literary theorist Tzvetan Todorov singled it out in his classic Introduction à la littérature fantastique as a key work of the fantastic. Today, it’s remembered as a visionary blend of ghost story, social commentary, and spiritual reflection - a gem in the Victorian canon.
Book Condition: Very Good+: A firm copy with slight spine lean. Mild sunning to the spine. Gift inscription and owner's name to the title page.
Notes: Transcription of the included letter: 13 Golf Place St Andrews, N.B. Sept. 6 Dear Mrs. Critch, I am very glad you like Beleaguered City - you will understand that there is a great deal more of me in it than in an ordinary novel, so that I am more than usually pleased when it touches my friends. I really did not think of profit at all, but of sending it out to the many whose sympathy sustains one, though one knows nothing about it. However, I think you mean quite as I am quite aware of the risk. I have the original proof from which a good deal was cut out to make it possible for the new leading - at home, when I shall be, if all is well, in the beginning of October - I will then look it out and see how much it comes to. Could you give me an idea how much it would make as it stands? I suppose you would not want a large volume - I should be glad of an understanding - to work out one or two points if it could be done without injury to the unity of the book. We have had some days of beautiful sunshine here, and my window looks on the links, and the coast, and the hills far away, and the sunset. I never see so much sky anywhere as at St. Andrews, and it makes one feel bigger - (this may be the impertinence of the boys in my voice!) It makes one quite amusing in any case; at least the world looks larger, wider, and greater than when one has only a little prosaic street looking upon one’s road. Kindest regards to Mrs. Critch. My best yours, M. O. W. Oliphant
HCX24790-1