Kidnapped

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

Considered one of Robert Louis Stevensn's best works, Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel, first published in Young Folks magazine from May to July 1886. The novel is considered a companion to Stevenson's Treasure Island. A Sequel, Catriona, was published in 1893.

The full title of the book is Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; his Journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he Suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson. 

The story is set around real 18th-century Scottish events, notably the "Appin murder", which occurred in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Many of the characters are real people, including one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart. 

Robert Louis Stevenson is the author of Kidnapped and The Children's Garden of Verses as well as the adult book, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. During his short life Stevenson travelled the world from the South Pacific to the USA, Europe to Australia. He died at the age of 44 years old on a small Samoan island in the Pacific. -

First Edition Identification

London: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1886. First edition, first issue with "business" on p. 40, line 11, all additional required points, and the ads dated 5.G. 4.86 and 5.B. 4.86. Folding map printed in colours. 8vo, publisher’s original red cloth, the covers ruled in blind, the spine lettered in gilt. viii, 311, [17] ads pp.-

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On May 10, 2012, feeney said
If ever a book's title clearly sketched its contents, it is Robert Louis Stevenson's full name for his 1886 novel "KIDNAPPED - BEING THE ADVENTURES OF DAVID BALFOUR: HOW HE WAS KIDNAPPED AND CAST AWAY; HIS SUFFERING IN A DESERT ISLE; HIS JOURNEY IN THE WEST HIGHLANDS; HIS ACQUAINTANCE WITH ALAN BRECK STEWART AND OTHER NOTORIOUS HIGHLAND JACOBITES; WITH ALL THAT HE SUFFERED AT THE HANDS OF HIS UNCLE, EBENEZER BALFOUR OF SHAWS, FALSELY SO-CALLED; WRITTEN BY HIMSELF AND NOW SET FORTH BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON." Phew! *** KIDNAPPED was an instant literary success. -- First, because it was about Scotland, both the author's native lowlands and the wild, mysterious, alien-language islands and highlands. It narrates a few warm weather months in 1751. -- Second, with both his parents now dead, late teens David Balfour is sent from the village where his father had been schoolmaster back "home" with a letter of introduction to his father's evil younger brother Ebenezer Balfour. Ebenezer is currently the miserly laird of Shaws, a dilapidated estate near Edinburgh. To prevent David from reclaiming his rights, uncle Ebenezer sells him to a greedy sea captain for later resale into servitude in South Carolina. -- Thirdly, at sea, sailing all around the top of Scotland from the east coast into the treacherous, rocky waters of the Inner Hebrides, David Balfour's life intersects with that of historically attested Alan Breck Stewart. Stewart is collecting money for Scottish losers in the 1745-46 rising, now living in impoverished exile in France with James Stewart, their "King across the water." *** After fighting off together an evil captain and crew, then shipwrecked and briefly parted off the west coast of Scotland, David and Alan pursue their now intertwined missions. Alan needs to get safely across enemy territory back to France with money that he has collected. David must return to the Firth of Forth to regain his inheritance. Each is of service to the other. Alan helps puritanical David become a man, teaches him swordcraft and the ways of the life-embracing Catholic highlands. *** Their story is told in later years by David Balfour himself, from the point of view of a sheltered adolescent lowlander, a Calvinist, a temperate and docile accepter of the political status quo in Scotland. David writes with both exasperation and deep affection about his meteoric and astonishingly opposite hero: a Catholic, the greatest swordsman of the Highlands, an unapologetic man of the world, a gambler who loses all David's money at cards playing with a Highland chief. Women and girls are few and far between. Romance barely flickers once toward tale's end as a brave girl rows the pair across the Firth of Forth to safety. David is frequently ill, very ill, a human condition, he notes in passing, that is rarely mentioned by writers of books for boys. ***On the surface KIDNAPPED is pure boys' adventure tale, complete with unrelenting chase over mountains and through the heather by King George's Redcoats who think -- erroneously -- that Alan, abetted by David, has murdered a high ranking, historically attested Scottish collaborator of King George. Here is a pair of moral and cultural opposites who do much good to each other. In 1886 author Stevenson had just read Mark Twain's THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN and it shows in KIDNAPPED. *** More deeply, KIDNAPPED is about an abnormally cruel period in Scottish-English history, told largely from the point of view of the gallant highland losers. KIDNAPPED is Robert Louis Stevenson's exploration of the divided Scottish psyche: highlands v. lowlands, Gaelic v. Scots as mutually incomprehensible languages, Catholicism v. Presbyterianism, Stewart Kings v. Hanoverians, agricultual mountain clans v. small nuclear retail trading nuclear families living between Glasgow and Edinburgh. This is not a profound book, but it is a very good one. And in pock-faced, diminutive, swashbuckling Alan Breck Stewart readers have a hero not soon forgotten. -OOO-

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Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751
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Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751

by STEVENSON, Robert Louis (Inscribed by Swinburne to "Bertie")

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Used - Very Good-
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First
Published
1886
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First edition, first issue. Frontispiece fold-out map. Ads dated "5G.4.86" and "5B.4.86". Original gilt stamped red cloth (some uneven fading;); black coated endpapers. Very good. No other signatures of bookplates. Signed and inscribed by A.C. Swinburne on the half title page: "Herbert Walter Mason from his affectionate friend Algernon Charles Swinburne August 4th 1886." *Herbert Walter Mason "Bertie", was the… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped
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Kidnapped

by STEVENSON, Robert Louis

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First Edition
Published
1886
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London: Cassell and Co, 1886. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 8vo. Original red publisher's cloth. Fold-out map. viii; 311 pp.; [16] pp. of ads. Minor scuffing and discoloration to cloth. Cock to spine. Bookplate inside front cover. Previous owner's signature, dated 1886, on title page. Tight and clean. An excellent copy. This is a first edition,… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour
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Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour

by Robert Louis Stevenson

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First edition
Published
1886
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Full leather
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London: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1886. First edition. Full leather. This first edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped is finely bound in full oxblood calf. The binding features raised spine bands, double gilt-rule framed and gilt-tooled compartments, twin black spine title and author labels, gilt rule-bordered covers, red and green silk head and tailbands, and marbled endpapers. Condition of… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped
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Kidnapped

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

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1886
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London: Cassell , 1886. First UK Edition, Second Issue, published by Cassell in 1886. 311pp including 11 pages with advertisements (including one page ad for 'Treasure Island', dated: 5.G-10.86. Sixteenth thousand to title page, with "pleasure" on page 40, Original green boards. Wear to the edges, handling marks to the boards. Small name to the title page. Rare … Read more about this item
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KIDNAPPED:  Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751.

KIDNAPPED: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751.

by STEVENSON, Robert Louis:

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London: Cassell and Company. 1886. First edition [second issue]. First edition [second issue]. Publisher's original green cloth with gilt titles to the spine. Black coated endpapers. Fold out map frontispiece. Catalogue to the rear. An excellent better than very good copy, the spine tips a little bumped, the cloth clean and the binding firm. The contents are entirely complete… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped

Kidnapped

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

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Published
1908
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NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908. Green cloth w/gilt lettering on spine, logo on cover, 824 gilt edge pgs w/b&w illustrations. Clean Tight Volume w/bump to top corner, scant corner rub.. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket . 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.
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KIDNAPPED
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KIDNAPPED

by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Used - VERY GOOD++
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No DJ
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Blue Ribbon Books, New York 1921
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1921
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Red cloth over boards, clean and bright, beautifully design with pictures
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Blue Ribbon Books, New York 1921. Copyright, 1921 by Harper & Brothers, 1921. Blue Ribbon Books, New York 1921. Red cloth over boards, clean and bright, beautifully design with pictures. VERY GOOD++/No DJ. With over one hundred illustrations in color and black and white and decorations by LOUIS RHESD and Frank E. Schoonover.. KIDNAPPED: Being Memoirs of The… Read more about this item
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KIDNAPPED

KIDNAPPED

by Stevenson Robert Louis; [Lynd Ward, Illustrator]

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New York: Grosset & Dunlap, ND [1948]. Illustrated Junior Library edition. Handsomely illustrated by Lynd Ward with ten fine colourplates in watercolour style and with numerous woodcut illustrations throughout the text. Tall 8vo, in the publisher's original decorated cloth featuring an all-over full colour illustration by Ward wrapping around both covers and the spine, the spine… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped
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Kidnapped

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

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First Edition
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1886
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[London]: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1886. First Edition. Very Good. First edition, first issue with "business" on page 40, line 11, and adverts at rear dated 5G. 4.86 and 5B. 4.86. Bound in publisher's original cloth ruled in blind with titles in gilt on the spine; with folding map at front. Very Good with light lean to spine… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped
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Kidnapped

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

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Used - Fine
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Not Issued
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1st Edition
Published
1886
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London: Cassell & Company, 1886. Book. Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. First Edition, First State. Blue buckram with bright gilt lettering. Fold out multi colored publisher's map opposite title page. First printing with "business" rather than "pleasure" on page 40 line 11; "nine o'clock" on page 64 line 1; and "Long Islands" on page 101, lines 9-10. The 17 pages… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751
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Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

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Used - Very Good
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First edition
Published
1886
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Hardcover
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[London]: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1886. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 8vo. [5], vi-viii, [1], 2-311, [13] (pages of publisher's advertisements), [4] pp. Half early 20th-century navy morocco over royal blue cloth, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; spine in six compartments with gilt lettering, top edge gilt. Bound by C.A. Campling of Great Yarmouth. Illustrated by a color fold-out… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped
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Kidnapped

by STEVENSON, Robert Louis

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First Edition
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1886
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London: Cassell and Co, 1886. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 8vo. Original red publisher's cloth. Fold-out map. viii; 311 pp.; [16] pp. of ads. Binding has been professionally repaired in the past. Minor scuffing and discoloration to cloth. Bookplate inside front cover. Previous owner's signature, dated 1919, on title page. Tight and clean. An excellent copy. … Read more about this item
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Kidnapped
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Kidnapped

by Robert Louis Stevenson

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1935 Edition
Published
1935
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Book not first edition. Book in overall fair condition. Binding is good. Spine is very bad. missing portions upper spine and lower spine. Pages are yellowish due to aging discoloration process. No writings or markings in book. Book is old edition, as published in 1935, 86 years old. Book has had significant… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped (Original screenplay for the 1948 film, copy belonging to uncredited script supervisor Ilona Vas)
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Kidnapped (Original screenplay for the 1948 film, copy belonging to uncredited script supervisor Ilona Vas)

by Robert Louis Stevenson (novel); William Beaudine (director); Scott Darling (screenwriter); Roddy McDowall, Sue England, Dan O'Herlihy (starring)

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Published
1948
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Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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Hollywood: Lindsley Parsons Productions, 1948. Lined Draft script for the 1948 film. Copy belonging to uncredited script supervisor Ilona Vas, with her extensive annotations on rectos and versos throughout. Bound in after the script are three form pages in which Vas lists each major character and the script page in which the character first appears. Based on the… Read more about this item
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KIDNAPPED
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KIDNAPPED

by Stevenson, Robert Louis.

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Brampton, Ontario, CAN
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London: Collins' Clear-Type Press. Hardcover. Very Good. George Ogilvy Reid. London: Collins' Clear-Type Press. Very Good. George Ogilvy Reid. No date stated. Frontispiece ""The wreck of the convenant, 298 pages. Blue cloth with black lettering. Blindstamped illustration on front board. Po name on front cover. Border around each story page of book of characters from… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped; Illustrated edition
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Kidnapped; Illustrated edition

by STEVENSON, Robert Louis

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Published
1888
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Hardcover
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Chicago, Illinois, USA
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London: Cassell and Co, 1888. Hardcover. Very good. 8vo. Original blue publisher's cloth. Fold-out map. vi; 311 pp.; [16] pp. of ads. Binding has been professionally repaired in the past. Minor scuffing to cloth. Hinges overopened but intact. Embossment on front free endpaper. This is an early, illustrated printing of Stevenson's classic adventure novel. (Prideaux 18)… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped (South Seas Edition)

Kidnapped (South Seas Edition)

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

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Used - Very Good
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Good
Edition
South Seas Edition
Published
1925
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Hardcover
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Stevenson, Robert Louis Kidnapped (South Seas Edition) 1925, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY. Volume XI of the series. USED. VG Condition/ Good original green dust jacket. Front of green jacket states Complete, Authorized, copyrighted. Green and white ocean map endpapers. 264 pages. 4 ½ X 6 7/8. Please see stock photo of cover design for this series.
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Kidnapped
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Kidnapped

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

Condition
Used - Good
Edition
First edition
Published
1886
Binding
Hardcover
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Tucson, Arizona, USA
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London: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1886. First edition. Hardcover. Good. Folding color map (two closed tears, neatly repaired). Blue cloth, gilt spine title First issue, with 'business' on p. 40, 'nine' on p. 64,'islands; on p. 101, and ads dated '5.G.4.86' and '5.B.4.86'. Wear to edges, head and tail of spine, and hinges else a very good copy.… Read more about this item
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Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751...

Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751...

by STEVENSON, Robert Louis

Condition
Used
Published
1938
Binding
Hardcover
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Galena, Illinois, USA
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New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1938. Hardcover. Introduction by Christopher Morley. Illustrations by Hans Alexander Mueller. Small 4to. Terra cotta cloth over bevel-edged boards, decorative paper-over-boards slipcase. xiv, 237pp. Illustrations. Near fine/very good. Spine lacks gilt-lettered black calf label, as usual; quite mild slipcase edgewear. Tight and nice copy of this historical fiction set in Scotland, lengthily subtitled… Read more about this item
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SGD 239.00
Kidnapped: Being memoirs of the adventures of David Balfour in the year 1751

Kidnapped: Being memoirs of the adventures of David Balfour in the year 1751

by Stevenson, Robert Louis

Condition
Used - Good
Jacket Condition
No Dj cover
Edition
First edition-second issue
Binding
Hardcover
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Southampton, Hampshire, GBR
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Cassell & Co. First edition-second issue. Hardcover. Good/No Dj cover. GC plus.Casell and company,1886,London.Sixteenth thousand.First edition-second issue with "pleasure" on page 40, line 11.Red hardback(a couple of stain and ink marks on the front and back cover,gilt lettering to the spine but slightly faded,two small tears on the edges of the spine) in good condition plus, no Dj… Read more about this item
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