THE CROQUET PLAYER: A STORY by Wells, H[erbert] G[eorge] - 1936

London: Chatto & Windus, 1936. Octavo, pp. [1-10] 1-81 [82] [83: printer's imprint] [84-86: blank] [note: first two and last leaves are blanks], original mottled green and black cloth, printed paper label affixed to spine panel. First edition. A presentation copy from one ghost story writer to another with signed inscription by Wells on the half title page to Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) who lived in Regent's Park from 1935 until after the end of World War II: "To Elizabeth Bowen / with warmest regards / H. G." "This story is a satire written in the form of an allegory. In its symbolism it has close affinities with THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU (1896) and MR. BLETTSWORTHY ON RAMPOLE ISLAND (1928)." - Hammond, p. 44. "In some ways a more mature telling and redirection of 'The Red Room,' or hauntings as due to mental fragments that have assumed a power beyond their immediate origin. It is also a symbolic statement of the psychosis emergent within Western culture just before World War II. 'A sickness in the very ground of our lives, breaking out here and there and filling men's minds with a paralyzing irrational fear.' The ghost story as a statement of the spiritual breakdown of society ... One of Wells's better late works." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1683. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-1224. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 3-360. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 225. Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 174. Bleiler (1978), p. 205. Reginald 15020. Hammond B18. Wells Society 125. Small chip to paper spine label, minor offsetting to endpapers, a very good copy in good pictorial dust jacket with tanning to spine panel, internal tape mends at spine ends, and some general dust soiling, mostly to rear panel. A nice association copy. (#149947)