Adventures in the Land of the Behemoth. [The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa].

VERNE, Jules [Gabriel] (1828-1905), [FÉRAT, Jules, illustrator].

Boston, MA: Henry L. Shepard & Co., 1874. [African Adventure] SECOND US EDITION. Octavo (21 x 15cm), pp.[2] 190 [2]. With 20 wood engraved plates, including a frontispiece. Publisher's brown cloth with titles and decoration in gilt and black to spine and upper. Dark blue endpapers. Lightly browned throughout. Some wear to cloth, particularly to head and tail of spine. Very good. A group of Russian and English scientists travel through the Kalahari desert in order to accurately measure the circumference of the Earth, only to discover in the middle of their work that their two countries have gone to war... Essentially a pirate copy, consisting of a slightly abridged version of the Frewer translation published by Scribner the very same day in the US. Although it was billed as one of the cheapest ever books produced in the US at that time, priced at $1.00, it is a handsome looking beast, though it is printed on inferior paper with fewer illustrations than would be usual for a Verne first edition at this time. First published in English in 1872. Item #56496

Price: £275.00