Hardcover
1892 · London/Sydney
by Pryce, Richard
London/Sydney: Griffith Farran & Co. Limited. Fair. 1892. "Revised". Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [well-worn book, tears to cloth at both ends of spine, front hinge cracked, ffep detached (laid in), frontispiece and title page about half-detached, one-time owner's name and private library number(?) written on front pastedown]. An early fictional treatment of the horrors of morphine addiction by this English author (1870-1942). The plot deals with a young governess who reacts to the shock of being jilted by her fiance by resorting to morphine injections to dull the pain (the drug is the "evil spirit" of the book's title, not any kind of supernatural being). Originally published in 1887, this being a "Revised" edition, stated on the title page. Quite scarce; OCLC records only six copies of the 1887 edition (all but two held in the U.K.) and three copies of this one. . (Inventory #: 24744)