New Arabian Nights [and] More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter. STEVENSON, Robert Louis and Fanny Van de Grift.

First edition in book form of New Arabian Nights together with a first edition of its sequel, finely bound. The fantastical stories were a departure from those expected by Stevenson's readers. In time, they became recognized as some of his finest work: Arthur Conan Doyle described The Pavilion on the Links as "the high-water mark of his genius" (Conan Doyle, p. 647). The stories in New Arabian Nights initially appeared between 1877 and 1880 in the Cornhill Magazine, the London Magazine, and Temple Bar. Several of those in The Dynamiter were the work of Fanny Stevenson. She originally composed them to entertain her husband during a period of illness in which he could not read and remained involved throughout the publication process. When The Dynamiter was published, the reviewer for the Pall Mall Gazette declared that "we can only compare the effects of the New Arabian Nights to those of haschisch on the properly adapted constitution. When once we have resigned ourselves to the spell of Mr. Stevenson we are rapt into a delirious country of dreams and visions, where the most impossible things may happen, and where all that happened is beheld with astonishing brilliance and distinctness" (p. 5). Mckay & Beinecke 139, 323; Prideaux 8, 18; Slater p. 29, pp. 27-8. Arthur Conan Doyle, "Mr Stevenson's Methods in Fiction", The National Review, January 1890; "The Dynamiter", Pall Mall Gazette, May 1885. 3 vols, octavo (181 x 123 mm). Contemporary red morocco by Birdsall, spines with five raised bands, tooled and lettered in gilt, gilt frames to covers and turn-ins, edges ruled in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, others untrimmed. With original green cloth front covers and spines bound in at the ends of vols I and II, and original paper wrapper bound in at the end of More New Arabian Nights. Extremities retouched and occasionally worn, occasional scratches. A very good set.