“SVENGALI WALKING UP AND DOWN THE EARTH, SEEKING WHOM HE MIGHT CHEAT, BETRAY, EXPLOIT…”

DU MAURIER, George. Trilby. London: Osgood, McIlvaine, 1895. Square octavo, mid-20th century three-quarter navy morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers and edges, top edge gilt. $450.

First English one-volume edition of du Maurier’s popular novel, handsomely bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

Already famous as an artist for Punch, du Maurier received encouragement from Henry James to write novels and illustrate them himself. Originally published in serial form, Trilby in book form first saw print in three volumes in 1894. It is best remembered for the “preternaturally competent mesmerist,” Svengali. Some literary critics regard Trilby as a key influence on Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel, Le Fantome de l’Opera. With frontispiece and in-text illustrations by the author, many full-page. Original blue cloth-gilt bound in. Wolff 1952c.

Slightest rubbing to boards. An about-fine copy.