   
O'Connor, V. C. Scott. The Silken East A Record of Life and Travel in Burma.
Published: Hutchinson & Co. London. 1928
Edition: Second Edition
Binding: Original gilt tooled blue cloth.
Price: U.S.$295
 FREE shipping by Registered Airmail Post.
  
8vo., 2nd Edition, original gilt tooled blue cloth, gilt lettered spine, one inch tear to base of spine, pp. 384, profusely illustrated through-out with 200 plates including 8 coloured & a folding colour map at rear, a very good copy.
Back to top.
|
    
Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, rendered into English verse by Edward Fitzgerald.
Published: Hodder and Stoughton. n.d.
Edition: First Trade Edition [1913]
Binding: Elaborate Decorated Brown Cloth
Price: U.S.$515 Sold
This price includes shipping by Registered Airmail Post.
  
4to., First Trade Edition, original brown cloth, elaborately decorated in gilt and blue, gilt spine, top edge red, un paginated, illustrated by Rene Bull with 10 captioned tissue guarded mounted colour plates, The captioned tissue guards separate this 1st trade edition from an almost identical 1915 reprint,. smaller mounted colour plates, ornate borders in various styles, line drawings, head & tail pieces, spotting and browning to endpapers, a very good copy of Rene Bull's wonderful illustrated Rubaiyat.
Back to top.
|
    
Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, rendered into English verse by Edward Fitzgerald. With illustrations by Edmund Dulac
Published: Hodder and Stoughton. n.d. 1909
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Elaborate Decorated Cream Cloth
Price: U.S.$450 Sold
This price includes shipping by Registered Airmail Post.
 
4to., First Edition, Elaborate decorated cream cloth, slightly soiled and worn, spine darkened, un paginated, patterned endpapers, decorated title page, illustrated by Edmund Dulac with 20 tissue guarded full page tipped-in colour plates, each with an elaborate border design, a light spot here and there, small neat inscription dated 1909 on front decorated endpaper, contents clean, a good firm copy.
Back to top. |
    
Orczy, Baroness. The Scarlet Pimpernel Four Complete Novels
Published: Hodder and Stoughton, London. March 1930
Edition: First Edition Thus
Binding: Original Beige Cloth
Price: U.S.$425
This price includes shipping by Registered Airmail Post.
Thick 8vo., First Edition Thus, original beige cloth lettered in red and black slightly faded with a few light stains, pp. 1279, signed by the author on title page, 2 typed letters ( 4 pages in all) inserted on front free endpaper (Villa Bijou, Monte-Carlo, 1938) to LEL Downing of Cardiff (“I am so glad you happen to have seen the play The Scarlet Pimpernel as then you saw the ideal Sir Percy Blakeney and also the ideal Chau velin...” pasted in are 3 postcards of Fred Terry & Julia Neilson in these roles), a further postcard has worked loose from half title leaving a small tear to half title page, contents clean a good copy of this unique item.
Back to top. |
   
Orwell, George. Burmese Days.
Published: Harper Brothers New York. 1934
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Original Orange Cloth
Price: U.S.$1,375 Sold
 This price includes shipping by FedEx. (2-4 days)
8vo., First Edition, original black lettered orange cloth, slightly soiled and marked, spine slightly faded, patterned yellow/white endpapers, half title, title in green & black, four inch thin line mark to title page only just noticeable, pp. 371, a clean & good tight copy of this classic.
There were some problems in publishing Orwell's second book, Burmese Days. Victor Gollancz declined it, anxious that it would offend too many people in Indian circles (especially retired imperial servants with letter-writing time on their hands?), and that it might invite libel actions from individuals who might claim to recognise themselves. Interestingly, later discussions about the names of characters in the novel between Gollancz and Orwell suggest that Victor was as concerned about being sued by Burmese and Indians who recognised themselves in the book as by English colonial officials. The risk seemed too great: “I can't face the sleepless nights”, wrote Gollancz to Orwell. Heinemann rejected the book for similar reasons. However, Harper Brothers in New York, unworried about offending imperial sensibilities, took the novel (with some alterations to minimise the possibility of libel actions). Burmese Days came out in New York in October 1934. The most recent account suggests that about 3,000 copies of this edition sold between October 1934 and February 1935. This was respectable, if short of the success which Orwell defined in a contemporary letter as “not less than 4,000 copies [sold]”. Reviews were also favourable.
British Club in Kathar (In Orwell's time it consisted of only the ground floor)
Burma and the early novels
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June, 1903]—21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. Noted as a novelist and critic as well as a political and cultural commentator, Orwell is among the most widely admired English-language essayists of the 20th century. He is best known for two novels critical of totalitarianism in general, and Stalinism in particular: Animal Farm and Nineteen Eight-Four. Both were written and published towards the end of his life.
After Blair finished his studies at Eton, his family could not pay for university and
his father felt that he had no prospect of winning a scholarship, so in 1922 he joined the Indian Imperial Police, serving at Katha and Moulmein in Burma. He came to hate imperialism, and when he returned to England on leave in 1927 he decided to resign and become a writer. He later used his Burmese experiences for the novel Burmese Days (1934) and in such essays as "A Hanging" (1931) and "Shooting an Elephant" (1936).
Blair's grandmother lived at Moulmein, and with family connections in the area, his choice of posting was Burma. In October 1922, he sailed on board SS Herefordshire via the Suez Canal and Ceylon to join the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. A month later he arrived at Rangoon and made the journey to Mandalay, the site of the police training school. After a short posting at Maymyo, Burma's principal hill station, he was posted to the frontier outpost of Myaungmya in the Irrawaddy Delta at the beginning of 1924.
His imperial policeman's life gave him considerable responsibilities for a young man while his contemporaries were still at university in England. When he was posted to Twante as a sub-divisional officer, he was responsible for the security of some 200,000 people. At the end of 1924, he was promoted to Assistant District Superintendent and posted to Syriam, which was closer to Rangoon. In September 1925 he went to Insein, the home of the second largest jail in Burma. At Insein he had "long talks on every conceivable subject" with a journalist friend, Elisa Maria Langford-Rae, later the wife of Kazi Lhendup Dorjee, who noted his "sense of utter fairness in minutest details".
In April 1926 he moved to Moulmein, where his grandmother lived, and at the end of that year he went on to Katha. There he contracted Dengue fever in 1927. He was entitled to leave in England in that year and, in view of his illness, was allowed to go home in July. While on leave in England in 1927, he reappraised his life and resigned from the Indian Imperial Police with the intention of becoming a writer.
Back to top. |
