The Orphan of Novogorod: An Illyrian Tale An Ex-Officer of the British Commissariat [Louis Anthony Donatti]

London, Black and Armstrong, 1841. Limited Edition. Hardback. A very good copy. Purportedly biographical, but clearly fantasy. "the eponymous 'orphan', takes a three-week fantastic journey first by underground river (replete with human-headed eels and other monsters) and then in a zeppelin-like balloon, progressing from Carniola (near Trieste) to a vast Utopia, possibly an island in the Atlantic Ocean. Here, in the city of New Jerusalem, he discovers a society based on an exceedingly humane form of Christianity, and blessed by medical science (and other inventions) which enable its inhabitants to live for centuries. After years there, he is blown for days by a subterranean hurricane through further caverns ('vast armies' can be heard marching far below) into less attractive lands, and eventually returns to the normal world. The book ends with a letter from Donatti recommending to the British army that the conduct of war in Canada required the use of 'steam carriages' for transport when rivers were iced-over, and in the implied possibility of an Invasion of Canada that soldiers should be trained to engage in what sounds very much like guerrilla warfare" [Clute, SFE]. Very uncommon, reported to be only 148 copies published, it's only the second copy we've encountered. The blind blocked boards are a little worn and tired with bumps and rubs and 20mm of loss to the head of the spine. Internally, the endpapers a little grubby with the lower endpaper pulling away from the boards. text block neat if a little shaken. [12730, Hyraxia Books].