ARNOLD BENNETT FIRST EDITIONS AT
ASH RARE BOOKS
43 HURON ROAD
LONDON SW17 8RE
UNITED KINGDOM

London : Chatto & Windus, 1902. First edition. A young woman struggles for freedom and independence in the Potteries – “There is excellent material in every character, and the grip of circumstance is strong and capable. Indeed, the picture of ‘The Five Towns’ with the life of prosaic labour, into which the mystery of romance yet creeps, is not only admirable but beautiful” (Contemporary review in The Pilot).
Crown 8vo (20cm). [viii],360 + 32pp advertisements dated March 1902. Original pictorial cloth, gilt and enamelled; top edge gilt; some minor rubbing and light wear; some spotting and browning, mainly to edges, endpapers and prelims, but still overall a very good copy of a difficult title. With the contemporary ownership inscription of H. B. Money-Coutts – Hugh Burdett Money-Coutts, Sixth Baron Latymer, J.P. (1876-1949), author and poet, who served at Gallipoli and in Egypt in the Great War.

SOLD

London : T. Werner Laurie, [1906]. First edition. Their first collaboration – “That monster, London, was just lying down to rest. The clocks of the Strand churches and the Strand hotels, keeping nocturnal vigil, showed a quarter to one under the February moon ...” – later published in the USA as “Doubloons”.
Crown 8vo (20cm). viii,344pp. Original green cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt; lightly worn and bruised; tiny nick at foot; a little shaken and slack; front free endpaper torn and slightly defective; rear endpaper a little cracked; some spotting, mainly of prelims and edges; a few internal chips and small flaws, but a reasonable copy of a difficult title.

£25

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London : Methuen & Co., 1912. First edition. A fine collection of twenty-two stories from Bennett – some tragic some frolic – including “Mimi”, “The Letter and the Lie”, “Catching the Train”, “The Widow of the Balcony”, “Hot Potatoes”, “The Tiger and the Baby”, etc.
Crown 8vo (20cm). (viii),(326),[ii],[2] + (32)pp advertisements dated September 1911. Original decorative cloth gilt; spine just a touch dulled; one corner a touch bruised; some spotting of edges, but a very good copy.

SOLD

London : Methuen & Co., (1913). First edition. The further adventures of “The Card” – Edward Henry Machin stumbles into theatrical management in London and pursues Isabel Joy, the suffragette, to appear in his play. “There is no one in contemporary fiction so immense as Edward Henry Machin. He never wearies, because he always surprises and because Mr. Arnold Bennett never once errs in his presentation of him. ‘The Regent’ is as good, if not better, than ‘The Card’ and that is, indeed, saying a great deal” (The Globe, 12th September 1913).
Crown 8vo (20cm). (viii),(320)pp. Original cloth – the uncommon red variant – attractively blocked and lettered in gilt; a touch sunned; tiny mark to spine; endpapers lightly tanned; some spotting, mainly to edges and prelims, but overall a very good copy. Contemporary pencilled ownership inscription of Emily and Henry Catchpole (a bookbinder) of Richmond Road, Dalston.

£125

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