Prospero

1912 · 84830 — London: William Rider & Son 1912. First U.K. Edition. Octavo. 19cm. Publisher's deep blue embossed cloth titled in gilt to spine and front board. 299pp. 16pp publisher's ads to rear. Minor scuffing and bumping to spine ends and corners a little discoloration of the cloth in places very slight lean; internally clean with some marginal foxing to the prelims and page edges. A very good strong copy.<br /> <br /> A bizarre and often rather unwieldy time travel romp involving the discover of a modern revolver and a handful of sovereigns in an ancient Armenian tomb during an archaeological dig. It transpires that the tomb of the Biblical King Balthazar contains papyri suggesting that he was a time travelling student of the occult who also summoned a number of Egyptian gods witnessed the birth of Christ and took part in the Trojan War oh and he also rescues Helen of Troy from Hades and then marries her. One can only assume that those early 20th century British chaps were made of sterner stuff. A typically eccentric piece of rompery from Frederick Rolfe who laid claim to writing 95% of it with Pirie-Gordon adding flavor who never saw a convention literary or otherwise that he didn't want to overturn. William Rider & Son unknown