first edition Hardcover
1911 · London
by Pain, Barry (pseud. for Eric Odell)
London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.. Good. 1911. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [solid copy, moderately shelfworn, dust-darkening to top of text block, slight fading to spine cloth, a couple of small tears in cloth at top of spine]. One of the more uncommon short-story collections by this prolific author, containing twenty-one tales in all, including several of a semi-fantastical or macabre nature (such as "Post-Mortem," about a depressed poet who plots to fake his suicide and assume a new identity). Although he's occasionally cited as an influence on H.P. Lovecraft, he seems to have more often written in a lighter, somewhat de Maupassantian vein (he even mentions de Maupassant in passing in one story); one contemporary critic cited his "luminous insight into human character seved by a sympathetic and painstaking hand." . (Inventory #: 24695)