THE QUEEN'S CUP is an oddity in English publishing history, in that it is a three-decker novel published well after 1894, which is considered to be the final year of that format. For years, English novels had been published in three volumes, priced well above most people's means, and sold at half-price to circulating libraries from which each volume was rented separately. By 1894 authors wanted to write more concise tales, and people wanted to buy books rather than rent them, so most novels were first appearing (affordably) in one volume. By the year 1897, three-decker novels were almost unheard-of: this is one of only four that were published that year, of any author by any publisher. (This tale certainly could have been issued in one volume: the large print employed, and the liberal usage of white space on each page, reflect the printer's ardent efforts at stretching the tale to fill three volumes.) The simple blindstamped binding, the switch to lighter-weight laid paper, and especially the extremely small number of copies printed (350 copies is one of the lowest number of copies for any three-decker ever published), reflect the publisher's great hesitance in issuing this novel.

This is a very good set: two of the volumes have some rubbing toward the top of their front covers, and the third has a W. H. Smith label on its front pastedown -- all evidencing this set's circulating-library past; one volume has some general lightening of the dark green cloth, and some (original patterned) endpapers are cracked. Though not a fine copy, it is a quite presentable example of a very scarce Henty three-decker. Newbolt 78.1.