Books

Signed limited edition, number 29 of 250 copies signed by the artist. The Athenaeum included the book as being "books published this week" on 24 October 1914, and it was issued in both a trade and a remarkably small signed limited edition. The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art reviewed the volume in December 1914 and stated "the book... is an obvious prize for anyone who desires Shakespeare decorated and defined. Messrs. Constable, in format, printing, and binding, have, as usual, given to their work high quality and care". Alan Horne notes that "perhaps Robinson's best work was done for the 1913 Andersen, for A Midsummer Night's Dream and for two books for children which he wrote as well as illustrated - The Adventures of Uncle Lubin (1902) and Bill the Minder (1912)" (p. 373). Heath Robinson would later develop his individual style and draw ridiculous contraptions, thereby giving his name as a noun to the English language. Quarto. Original parchment boards, spine and front cover lettered and with designs in gilt, top edge gilt. Colour frontispiece and 11 colour plates, with captioned tissue guards, black and white illustrations in the text, all by Robinson. Bookseller's label to rear pastedown. Extremities a little bumped, consistent soiling to rear cover, browning to endpapers: a very good copy. The Athenaeum, 24 October 1914, p. 428; Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, 19 December 1914, p. 635; Alan Horne, The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators, 1994.

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (Russian: Сон смешного человека) is a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky written in 1877. It chronicles the experiences of a man who believes nothing has any value and is ripe with existential insights into human life and a reformation of spirit.