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Thais
AU$2,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartAnatole France; Raphael Freida
Paris: A. Plicque & Cie, 1924.One of 700 numbered copies on velin de Rives (from a total edition of 781), in a unique fine binding, signed E. Berthet. The upper board with a large painted and incised panel after one of Freida’s plates, the lower board with a smaller panel after a tailpiece, and the central spine compartment with an additional design by the binder. First published in 1890, after serialisation in the Revue des Deux Mondes (1889), Thais is among France’s best-known contes philosophiques: the story of the Alexandrian courtesan Thais and her conversion by the ascetic monk Paphnuce, whose own spiritual certainty disintegrates in the process. Issued in the year of Frances death, this finely illustrated edition is the most desirable of the few books illustrated by Raphael Freida (1877-1942), a pupil of Jean-Paul Laurens. His illustrations emphasise the works underlying eroticism, sharpening the tension between ascetic renunciation and sensual desire that defines the narrative.
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Le Roman de la Momie
AU$2,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartTheophile Gautier; Alex. Lunois
Paris: Librairie L. Conquet, 1901.The principal deluxe illustrated edition of Gautier’s 1858 Egyptological romance, centred on the discovery of the mummy of Tahoser and the narrative of her love for a young Hebrew. Illustrated by Alexandre Lunois (1863-1916), who travelled extensively in Egypt and based his compositions on direct observation of ancient architecture, ornament, and costume. One of 50 copies on Japon, issued with a supplementary suite of the illustrations, bound with the original wrappers and prospectus, in a signed, richly tooled Egyptian style binding by Chambolle-Duru.
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R and R: A Flight Fare Story
AU$500.00 Read MoreAdd to cartKen Babbs
: Ken Babbs, 1984.Self-published short story by Merry Prankster and psychedelic icon Ken Babbs, featuring Marine helicopter pilots Huckelbee and Cochran on R&R at a Japanese brothel, the Five Hundred Club. An early version of what would become, in heavily edited form, chapter 7 of Babbs’ 2011 Vietnam novel, Who Shot the Water Buffalo?. The novel originated from a manuscript Babbs began during his service as a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam (1962-63) and took nearly fifty years to reach publication. The present pamphlet is the only known separate printing of any portion of that manuscript, preserving a pre-publication text substantially different from the finished novel. Inscribed by Babbs to counterculture collector and historian Rick Synchef. Unrecorded in OCLC.
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Haschisch: A Novel
AU$1,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartThorold King [Charles Gatchell]
New York: Brentano’s, 1888.First published in 1886 under the pseudonym Thorold King, a novel of narcotic experience following a young Englishman who travels to Egypt, becomes addicted to hashish, and experiences vivid hallucinations. Gatchell was known for his interest in and personal experimentation with cannabis indica extract. In an 1889 letter (sold at auction by Alex Autographs, 2012), he provided detailed instructions on smoking the resinous extract, stating that in his book “there are many facts and many actual experiences” and that it was “possible for you to repeat everything there described.” This copy, probably the author’s own, with a manuscript note on the title page reading: “Published originally by A. C. McClurg, who sold 3 editions. Then I turned it over to Brentano’s who published and sold 3 more editions. C.” Various advertisements and promotional materials for the book are glued to the pastedowns and endpapers. Among the relatively few 19th-century novels to treat cannabis, marijuana, and hashish in a broadly positive or experiential light.
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Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life
AU$2,500.00 Read MoreAdd to cartThomas Wolfe
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929.Wolfe’s debut novel, a landmark autobiographical coming-of-age narrative in American literature. First edition, second state dust jacket. JOHNSTON A2.1.a.
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Death and the Lover
AU$1,500.00 Read MoreAdd to cartHermann Hesse
New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1932.First edition in English, translated from the German, Narziss Und Goldmund by Geoffrey Dunlop, and later published as Narcissus and Goldmund.
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Inland
AU$200.00 Read MoreAdd to cartGerald Murnane
London: Faber and Faber, 1988. -
Vice Versa or a Lesson to Fathers
AU$600.00 Read MoreAdd to cartF. Anstey [Thomas Anstey Guthrie]
London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1882.First edition, first printing of the comic novel by Thomas Anstey Guthrie set in Victorian London in which a stern father and mischevious son body-swap via a magic stone from India.
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Kontrol
AU$300.00 Read MoreAdd to cartEdmund Snell
London: Ernest Benn, 1928.Inter-war sci-fi thriller. “..an exuberant Scientific Romance with thriller elements, in which a Mad Scientist switches genius brains into athletes’ bodies, then wipes their minds clean, in order to create a race of obedient Supermen; he is under the control of a Soviet master operator, whose network operates a fleet of futuristic vertical-take-off aerial juggernauts and a Dystopian supercity on a secret Island. All ends in flames.” (SFE)
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Numerous Treasure: A Romantic Novel
AU$80.00 Read MoreAdd to cartRobert Keable
London: Constable & Co., 1925.Romance novel set in the Pacific after the author’s relocation to Tahiti. The final page provides a brief glossary of local terms, and the recipe for the absinthe based Numerous Treasure Cocktail.
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In Her Own Right
AU$50.00 Read MoreAdd to cartJohn Reed Scott
Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1911.Romance novel with 3 colour illustrations by Clarence F. Underwood.
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Justine ou les Malheurs de la Vertu
AU$400.00 Read MoreAdd to cartMarquis de Sade
Paris: Le Soleil Noir, 1950.First Edition with the preface by Georges Bataille. One of the first issue of 940 numbered copies with the pink frontispiece by Hans Bellmer.
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Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
AU$1,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartTerry Pratchett; Neil Gaiman
London: Victor Gollancz, 1990.First edition, first printing, in a full leather modern art binding by Queensland bookbinder Karen McGuire.
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Memoires de Jacques Casanova de Seingalt (2 Volumes)
AU$150.00 Read MoreAdd to cartJacques Casanova; Brunelleschi
Paris: Gibert Jeune, Librairie d’Amateurs, 1955.Illustrated by Umberto Brunelleschi, a number of which are erotic. One of 3,000 numbered copies.
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Manrape
AU$100.00 Read MoreAdd to cartMarta Tikkanen
London: Virago, 1978.Translated from the Swedish ‘Man kan inte valdtas’ by Alison Weir. The first English edition released alongside the 1978 film ‘Men Can’t Be Raped’. “On her fortieth birthday Eva Randers, library assistant, divorced, living alone, is asked to dance by Marty Wester at a local disco. After a few drinks they go back to his flat, where he proceeds to tie her up, pour liquor over her, and rape her. .. She’s stunned, humiliated, frightened, confused. She doesn’t report it to the police. And she can’t and won’t forget it. Stubbornly and obsessionally she makes her plan to alert the world to her experience…” (from jacket flap)
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La Fille aux Yeux d’Or
AU$2,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartHonore de Balzac; Almery Lobel-Riche
Paris: Le Livre du Bibliophile, G. & R. Briffaut, 1923.The Girl with the Golden Eyes. An aristocratic libertine becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman and sets about seducing her. Alas, his conquest uncovers a hidden lesbian relationship and he finds himself entangled in a web of erotic obsession and fatal jealousy. First published in 1835, this is the first edition with illustrations by Almery Lobel-Riche. One of 40 numbered copies on Japanese paper with the etchings in 3 states and an original drawing by Lobel-Riche (from a total edition of 500). This copy in a fine signed binding by H. Jacquet.
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Le Diable au Corps
AU$2,000.00 Read MoreAdd to cartRaymond Radiguet; Paul-Emile Becat
Paris: Editions Georges Gullot, 1957.The Devil in the Flesh. The story of a young married woman’s affair with a teenage boy while her husband is away fighting in WWI. First published in 1923, this is the first edition with erotic illustrations by Becat, and with an introduction by Jean Cocteau. The superlative issue, one of 16 numbered copies on Japanese paper with an original signed drawing in pencil and white gouache, with the composition then hand coloured and signed by Becat, the 16 illustrations by Becat hand coloured by Jean and Paulette Monnier, followed by a suite containing the illustrations in black in two states, on Japanese paper and Rives vellum.
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Le Diable Amoureux
AU$400.00 Read MoreAdd to cartJacques Cazotte; Paul-Emile Becat
Paris: La Tradition, 1936.The Devil in Love. Occult romance first published in 1772. This the first edition with erotic illustrations by Becat. One of 450 numbered copies on Arches vellum (of a total edition of 500).
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La Fille Elisa
AU$400.00 Read MoreAdd to cartEdmond de Goncourt; Paul-Louis Guilbert
Paris: Le Livre du Bibliophile, George Briffaut, 1929.Goncourt’s prostitute-prisoner novel, here published for the first time with original drypoints by Paul-Louis Guilbert, a preface by J. -H. Rosny Aine, and an afterword by Jean Ajalbert. Edition of 425 numbered copies, this copy on Arches vellum, unnumbered but inscribed by the publisher, likely to the Belgian publisher Albert Parmentier of Les Editions du Nord.
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La Mort de Philae
AU$400.00 Read MoreAdd to cartPierre Loti; Geo Colucci
Paris: Editions Rene Kieffer, 1924.The Death of Philae (English title: Egypt), a tale set around the submerging of the island of Philae with the construction of the Aswan Low Dam on the river Nile. The first edition with illustrations by Geo Colucci. One of 460 numbered copies on vellum (of a total edition of 500), in a fine half leather binding signed Ch. De Samblax with the original wrappers bound in.