'New Edition'. 8vo. Contemporary red half morocco over marbled boards, titled in gilt to spine within raised bands. The first edition was published in three volumes in 1865 by Hurst and Blackett (a second edition being issued in July 1865). This 1876 edition was volume 298 in the Select Library of Fiction and actually published in September 1875. It is a reprint of the three-decker. Although proclaimed as a New Edition on the title-page, it was in fact the third (and first one-volume) edition. Misleadingly originally advertised as a novel, the title story is actually a framework device for 19 independent short stories, 6 of which are supernatural: 'My Brother's Ghost Story', 'The Eleventh of March', 'Number Three', 'The Phantom Coach', 'The Discovery of the Treasure Isles' and 'The Recollections of Professor Henneberg'. The other stories are: 'Terrible Company', 'Bradshaw the Betrayer', 'Two New Year's Days', 'The Painter of Rotterdam', 'Love and Money', 'The Patagonian Brothers', 'My Diamond Studs', 'The Guard Ship at the Aire', 'A Railway Panic' 'The Grey Domino', 'Cain', 'Alice Hoffmann', and 'Miss Carew' (these being largely crime and murder mysteries, which Richard Dalby considered to merit reviving). Miss Carew does not appear to have been republished by Frederick Warne after the 1881 sale of the copyrights and plates. The first edition is so rare that it is also to all intents and purposes unobtainable. Robert Lee Wolf had a copy of the first edition but not of the Select Library of Fiction reincarnation. Michael Sadleir did not have a copy of any edition, nor did George Locke. Some minor spotting, neat ownership blind-stamp to first page of text; all edges trimmed; binding a little darkened and rubbed in places, but overall very good.
