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Illustrated and decorated by Alastair. Pp. 36, frontispiece and 10 plates with lettered tissue guards, plus 2 extra folding plates functioning as free endpapers, 13 large decorative initials, all printed in teal & black, as is the title page; med. 4to; white buckram, spine lettered in gilt, the upper board decorated in gilt & teal, lightly soiled, the edges slightly bruised; t.e.g., others uncut; contemporary gift inscription in ink on upper free endpaper, a couple of short edge splits, a little light foxing and occasional faint soiling; John Lane, The Bodley Head, London, 1920. First edition thus, limited to 1,000 copies. *With the publisher's blind 'Review Copy' stamp at head of title page. The Sphinx was originally published in 1894, although in the introductory note to this volume, Robert Ross states that it was written 'before Oscar Wilde's first volume was issued in 1881'. Alastair was the pseudonym of Hans Henning Voight (1887-1969). According to the publisher's note on the limitation page, the stones from which the plates were printed were in Belgium at the time of the German invasion and were destroyed during the war.

The Sphinx is a one-act play written by Oscar Wilde. It's a dramatic monologue by a woman who laments the absence of her lover, who has died. The richness of the symbolic imagery intertwines themes of love with the mystery of the Sphinx.