"AMONG THE VERY GREAT NOVELISTS IN THE LANGUAGE": CONRAD'S COLLECTED WORKS, ONE OF ONLY 99 SETS SIGNED BY HIM, HANDSOMELY BOUND

CONRAD, Joseph. The Collected Works. Garden City: Doubleday, 1925-26. Twenty-three volumes. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter green morocco gilt, raised bands, top edges gilt, uncut and mostly unopened. $13,500.

Signed limited "Memorial Edition," one of only 99 sets signed by Conrad, with engraved frontispiece plate in each volume. Sets of the complete works of Conrad are scarce; signed sets are particularly rare.

Conrad did not publish his first novel until the age of 38, but his work earned him a place with the great modernists of the 20th-century, "among the very great novelists in the language" (Drabble, 225). "Conrad's work at its best achieved a synthesis of theme, treatment, and language of a kind without precedent in English literature… Novelty of theme and the piquancy of a non-English origin established him as a romantic, almost as a legendary figure. His stories had excitement of a new kind, and his style, by its very queerness, could allure… powerfully… achieving a perfect equilibrium of pictorial and narrative style" (DNB). This edition was originally intended to be 377 copies, each signed by Conrad. As he died after having only signed 99 sets, the plan was changed and the signed sheets became part of this Memorial Edition. Includes all of his major and minor works, with several posthumously published stories and essays. This copy is unnumbered.

Spines uniformly toned. Fine condition.