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Hard cover, 8vo, ex-library, in publisher's olive cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering to spine, with tissue guarded frontispiece plus three other photographic full-page illustrations. Printed on laid paper. [8] 184 plus 16pp. publisher's catalog. First edition. CONDITION: Very Good. Library blind stamp to title page and one other, "withdrawn" sticker to front e.p., sunning to boards and spine, some light marks to boards, and moderate wear at head and foot of spine. Ghost of a vintage paper shelving label to spine and with scarce-used due date paper rear endpaper. Pages are, for the most part, moderately age-toned but otherwise very clean. **This series of eight interconnected short stories is set amongst the alpine villages of central Switzerland's Urseren Valley, roughly in the area around Lucerne. For the mountaineer, there are wonderful descriptions of the elemental forces of nature with towering precipices, foaming gorges, glaciers, avalanche and storm playing key roles in the plot. A sturdy and resolute populace, complete with all manner of human foibles, must endure the ever-harsh and dangerously snowy environment. A aging curé meets a mysteriously veiled woman who sobs in her lodgings. The scion of a once-powerful barony makes inappropriate advances on a young maiden, and then, contrite, leaves home. His nurse is left as caretaker to the stone lodging with a secret and a mysteriously inaccessible tower, which, in yet another story, shelters two refugees from religious and political persecution. The Devil's Bridge crossing the roaring river Reuss claims lives. A serious accident harms a mountaineering guide and potentially ruins his future plans. Another guide is lured away from safety in an obsessive pursuit of gems embedded in the cliff face.**The book was written ten years after the opening of a railway tunnel in 1888, for the first time bringing tourists to the area. The St. Gothard mountain group, Chamonix, the Finsteraarhorn, Shreckhorn, Silberhorn, Monch, the Jungfrau and the Eiger are all described in this memorably crafted story-cycle. REF: ZB, Zurich. OCLC. Scarce original first edition.(AMJ)
Ref: FICT19 9803
$185.00