The art nouveau illustration on this book is simply superb. The woman’s hair merges with the foliage and a snake to become a swirling pattern of curves that frame the subject and the title perfectly. I’ve looked very carefully inside this book too and have to confess that I’m baffled. I mean – it’s not very long, is it? The typeface is not tiny, the pages are not bible-thin, it really does look very normal. According to the title page it is not Volume One, or Twelve, or Three Hundred and Seventeen. It is not ‘To Be Continued’ or ‘Series 9, part 47,’ or even ‘The Beginning.’ So how did they get them all in? Strange, indeed…
John Long, 1906. First edition.
