VICTORY by Conrad, Joseph - 1915

1915. An Island Tale. London: Methuen & Co., (1915). 4 pp ads dated Autumn 1915 plus 31 pp ads dated "8/5/15". Original red cloth with gilt-decorated spine. First English Edition. This was issued about six months after the New York edition, due to delays related to Conrad's displeasure with Methuen ("It was Conrad's last book with Methuen and one wonders who was more relieved at that, the author, the publisher or the agent" [Cagle]). During this six months' delay, with the Great War underway, Conrad added his wartime preface in which he discusses the "Teutonic psychology" of the character Schomberg. This would be the last of the five Conrad books bound by Methuen in this shell-and-coral binding (three of them red, two green). The title page does have the comma after "Street," lacking from later copies in the print run. This is a bright copy, just about fine (the merest hint of wear at the upper spine tips -- with virtually none of the usual fading of the spine, and no foxing). Cagle A19.b.1. Provenance: partially-removed bookplate of Dorothy Furman, whose book collection was sold at the Walpole Galleries in 1923.