ISLAND NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS by Stevenson, Robert Louis - 1893

1893. Consisting of The Beach of Falesa / The Bottle Imp / The Isle of Voices. With Illustrations by Gordon Browne and W. Hatherell. London Paris & Melbourne: Cassell & Company, 1893. 16 pp ads dated Mar 1893. Original blue-grey cloth pictorially decorated in gilt. First English Edition, published five days after the American. "The Bottle Imp" is one of Stevenson's weirdest tales -- a supernatural blend of Aladdin's lamp, the monkey's paw, and a game of hot potato. As with most (if not all) copies, the book's price on the preliminary ad leaf was raised by hand. Some copies have ads dated as early as Sept 1892; however, since the book wasn't published until early April 1893, we would regard the ads in this copy (March 1893) as "primary." This is a bright, near-fine copy (minor cracking of the rear endpaper, faint damp-mark at the front cover fore-edge). Beinecke 577; Princeton 53A, copies 2-3.