"The Melancholy Hussar." In: THREE NOTABLE STORIES.
Love and Peril | To Be, or Not To Be | The Melancholy Hussar. Respectively by The Marquis of Lorne K.G. | Mrs. Alexander | Thomas Hardy. London: Spencer Blackett, 1890. 4 pp undated (Blackett) ads. Original light blue cloth lettered in black.
First Edition in book form, first issue. Hardy's Napoleonic short story first appeared in two issues of Bristol Times & Mirror in January 1890, after which it was sold to Tillotson & Son for their syndicated "Newspaper Fiction Bureau"; in June of that year Spencer Blackett included it (as here) in THREE NOTABLE STORIES, along with these two other stories owned by Tillotson -- the same year Blackett published Arthur Conan Doyle's THE SIGN OF FOUR. In 1891, unsold Spencer Blackett sheets were remaindered, and were subsequently re-issued and reprinted under various publisher names. "The Melancholy Hussar" would in 1894 be included in Hardy's book LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES.
This book, near-fine in condition, is an example of the unfortunate experiment of binding with staples rather than with string; in this case the staples have (atypically) held -- though as always they have rusted, and one pokes into the back side of the spine cloth. In our experience this is an uncommon book, in any of its issues. See Purdy p. 82. Item #15564
Price: $275.00