Sylvie and Bruno Concluded
Author: Lewis Carroll (PSEUD Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) [1832-1898]
Year: 1893
Publisher: MacMillan and Company
Place: London and New York
Description:
xxxi+[blank]+423 pages with frontispiece and illustrations by Harry Furniss, tables and index. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5 1/4") bound in original publisher's red cloth with gilt lettering to spine and pictorial to cover. All edges in gilt. First edition.
Sylvie and Bruno, first published in 1889, and its second volume Sylvie and Bruno Concluded published in 1893, form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. Both volumes were illustrated by Harry Furniss.
The novel has two main plots: one set in the real world at the time the book was published (the Victorian era), the other in the fantasy world of Fairyland. While the latter plot is a fairy tale with many nonsense elements and poems, similar to Carroll's Alice books, the story set in Victorian Britain is a social novel, with its characters discussing various concepts and aspects of religion, society, philosophy and morality.
Two short pieces, "Fairy Sylvie" and "Bruno's Revenge", originally appeared in Aunt Judy's Magazine in 1867. Some years later, in 1873 or 1874, Carroll had the idea to use these as the core for a longer story. Carroll initially intended for the novel to be published in one volume. However, due to its length, it was divided into two volumes, published in 1889 and 1893. The second part "Concluded" was issued with a dust jacket.
Condition: Light edge wear with slightly pushed spine ends, some light foxing to preliminaries else better than very good.
