The Martian

by George Du Maurier

George Bell and Sons, 1897, [First Edition], black and white frontispiece, black and white illustrations in text, hardcover

Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, rubbing, wear and markings to covers, previous owners stamp on front endpaper, small scribble in lead pencil on front and back endpapers, missing half last page (advertisement) (see photographs)

“…A long, largely autobiographical, novel that describes the lives of two bosom friends, Barty Josselin and Robert Maurice, starting from their school days in Paris in the 1850s. Written in long descriptive passages with very little dialogue and many digressions, the book had considerably less success in its time than its predecessor, the popular Trilby. Of a rather loose construction, its main points of interest lie for today's readers in lively descriptions of "la vie de bohême" and different parts of Paris through the second half of the 19th century, pages on Mechelen in Belgium and Whitby in the 1870s, and its superb illustrations...”