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First English Edition, First impression, binding state "C" Hard cover 12mo in vertically striped olive green cloth, the titles within an architectural frame on the top board, blocked in black, with book title and author within the top portion, and the three story titles centered one above the other in the bottom portion of the frame. Ruled in blind upon the outside edge of top board. Rear board is plain. Spine has frame blocked in gilt, with TWIXT/LAND & SEA/ (horizontal line)/ JOSEPH/ CONRAD/(bottom of frame) and to foot of spine: J.M.DENT & SONS LD (with the "D" a smaller font size and contained in the arms of the "L." All edges trimmed, top text block edge stained brown. Includes half title pages with expanded titles. Printed at The Temple Press, Letchworth.**CONDITION: Very Good Minus. Slightly cocked binding with an inconsequential area of bubbling near top of front board. Small split to head of spine 1/4 or less, spine titles a bit faded. Light wear to joints and tips. Rear hinge with 1/2 inch split starting near head, otherwise hinges are in order. Interior binding split along gathering "M". Intermittent foxing throughout. Lacking dust jacket. Pages moderately toned Now in mylar. ***Contains three Conrad short stories which are memorable for their complexity, psychological depth and masterful revelation of motive. "A SMILE OF FORTUNE," written in 1910, and printed first in London Magazine in Feb. 11, 1911, is about a young sea captain's visit to port on Mauritius in the 1880's. He is instructed by his shipowner to seek out a Mr. Jacobus, not understanding that the gentleman who next morning swiftly ingratiates himself by bearing good foods and commercial information is the intended man's estranged brother, Mr. Alfred Jacobus. An enterprising ship's chandler, Alfred touts for the provisioning trade onboard vessels anchored offshore, although inexplicably being labelled a a social outcast onshore. The Captain learns Alfred is despised for a scandalous attachment to a traveling circus-rider which resulted in a love-child, Alice, who together live a sequestered existence. His estranged brother, Ernest Jacobus ,meanwhile, while more socially connected , and also having a child born out of wedlock, is portrayed as a vicious brute. The mysteries behind this state of affairs are complex, and the narrator Captain is embroiled in affairs both commercial and of the heart. The second short story, "THE SECRET SHARER," was based upon an incident of the writer's knowledge taken place aboard the famous London-to-Singapore clipper ship, "Cutty Sark," engaged in the tea trade into the 1880's. The story first appeared in Harper's Magazine Aug. and Sept. 1910. The captain of the ship in Conrad's story takes aboard a man named Leggatt, the first mate of the "Sephora," who has been disciplined for killing an insubordinate crewman. To escape punishment, he appears one night as a stowaway. Why does the captain hide the young man, and why does he put the ship in peril in a typhoon in order to deliver him to safety? Complex moral dimensions make this a classic tale. Thirdly, "FREYA OF THE SEVEN ISLES," first printed in Metropolitan Magazine, April, 1912, has been described as a Conradian romance set in the Indian Ocean Basin, in which the main character, Freya, a young woman, must exist amid an environment of violent clashes between the commercial interests of the British and Dutch merchant marines. **See Supino A16.1.0, binding state C, p. 208-20. Scarce edition: Only 3500 copies were printed of the first impression, of which a number were released with a misprinted title on binding(variant A), causing some issues already bound having the error overstamped (variant B), and the remaining, including our item, not-yet -bound (variant C) being done up with a correctly printed cover.
Ref: CONRD 9206
$165.00