VERANILDA. A Romance

1904. London: Archibald Constable and Company, 1904. 16 pp undated ads. Original deep red cloth.

First Edition, which consisted of 3,000 copies. This was Gissing's incomplete historical novel, posthumously published. He still had five chapters to write when on 28 December 1903, wracked with double pneumonia, he died in the French Pyrenees. H.G. Wells, who had been summoned and had arrived on Christmas Day, was present at Gissing's death bed, and wrote the original preface for this work; however, the Gissing family objected to it so strongly that one by Frederic Harrison was substituted. (Wells published his in a periodical anyway). Constable (truncated) made no objection to publishing the novel as it stood... [S&C]. VERANILDA takes place in Ancient Rome, continuing Gissing's fascination with that country (and that era); he spent four months in 1897-1898 preparing for this book. In late 1900 he wrote to his friend Eduard Bertz, "I really think I can make an interesting book. One thing is certain -- I know my period...". This is a very good-plus, perhaps near-fine copy with minor soil and rubbing. Coustillas A26.1a; Collie B1a; Spiers & Coustillas DD9. Provenance: this copy appropriately came to us from Italy, and bears the inscription "To Distinctissima, Signora, Contessa, Marianna Brenzoni, in remembrance of S.S. "Irma" July, 1909 -- from R.W.R."; loosely inserted is the calling card "Mr. R.W. Robins" with "with" and " ' compts." added. (Inventory #: 15605)