Island Nights' Entertainments – Robert Louis Stevenson (Cassell & Company, First Edition, First Issue, 1893)

This Cassell & Company first edition, first issue (1893) is of interest to collectors of Robert Louis Stevenson first editions, Victorian illustrated fiction, and South Seas literature.

About: A very good first edition, first issue in the original blue-grey pictorial cloth, with exceptionally bright gilt decoration to front board, the Art Nouveau lettering and seated island woman stamping vivid and fully intact, a condition rarely encountered in this title. Spine gilt present with some dulling relative to the boards; minor wear at spine head; rear board with light soiling. Interior in outstanding condition: pages exceptionally bright and fresh; frontispiece and illustrations by Gordon Browne and W. Rainey clean and sharp; sketch map present and in fine condition, the critical first issue point, and here in a state of preservation significantly above the market norm. A copy of genuine distinction.

Details:

• Title: Island Nights' Entertainments (containing The Beach of Falesá, The Bottle Imp, The Isle of Voices)
• Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
• Publisher: Cassell & Company, Limited, London, Paris & Melbourne
• Publication Date: 1893
• Edition: First Edition, First Issue
• Binding: Original blue-grey pictorial cloth, gilt front board and spine
• Illustrators: Gordon Browne and W. Rainey
• Condition: Very Good
• Interior Condition: Fine
• Map: Present and Fine — first issue point

Synopsis: First edition, first issue with folded map in fine condition; original Cassell pictorial cloth with exceptionally bright gilt decoration; interior pages fresh and bright; illustrations by Gordon Browne and W. Rainey; a superior example of this scarce Stevenson title.

Review: Island Nights' Entertainments (1893) collects three of Stevenson's South Seas tales, written during his final years at Vailima, Samoa. The Beach of Falesá, a pioneering work of colonial fiction, is accompanied by the supernatural fable The Bottle Imp and the folk-inflected The Isle of Voices. The first issue of the Cassell first edition is distinguished by the presence of a sketched map; copies with the map intact and in fine condition are scarce, and copies combining this with an exceptionally bright interior and vivid gilt boards are rarer still. A significant Stevenson association copy for the serious collector.