The Stolen Bishop By Charles C. by ROTHWELL (Charles C.)

Rothwell. London: The Leadenhall Press, Ltd: 50, Leadenhall Street, E.C. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd: New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 153-157, Fifth Avenue, N.D. [August 1895]. Post 8vo; half-title not called for; title-page printed in red and black; facsimile on smaller paper tipped-in before title-page, bearing supposed ms. note by Bishop on recto, verso blank; pp.[3] - 239+[i (blank)]; publlisher’s Book List, 16pp., printed on text-paper, at end, the first page bearing the coding ‘(T.695)’ at foot; scarlet smooth cloth, ruled black on sides and spine, lettered gilt on spine, lettered gilt and black, blocked gilt, on front cover; fore-edges uncut; off-white end-papers. Title-page and last page of Book List embrowned by contact with end-papers; otherwise a virtually fine copy. Scarce. A beautifully written novel, probably intended for older girls, but certainly enjoyable by anyone. One of the characters is a cripple bearing a generic resemblance to Long John Silver in Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’, but one wonders whether Mervyn Peake had ever read the book: a scene between the cripple, one of his accomplices, and two girls in the attic of an empty inn rises to a high pitch of tension and seems to foreshadow the death scene of Steerpike in ‘Gormenghast’! All books listed by Robert Temple are first editions unless otherwise stated.