Books

First Edition; three volumes; publisher's decorated cloth; trivial wear and foxing; an excellent set in a custom clamshell box. Henty is best known for his boys' books with patriotic themes, action, gallantry and imperial triumph, but he wrote eleven books for adults, and published five novels in the three-decker format. Chatto & Windus issued four of these, of which this was the first and most successful, nevertheless remaining a notable rarity. These books represented the last gasp of three-decker publishing, a costly format well-suited to an era where for profit lending libraries could rent the volumes out individually (and incidentally resulting in copies such as the present one, never accessioned by these libraries, being much rarer). Britain and America were entering a period when industrial methods and cheaper materials (pulp paper, etc.) allowed mass production and distribution of books, rendering this earlier, charming, attractive format uneconomical and outmoded. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.

Rujub, the Juggler is a historical novel set during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. It tells the story of a British officer and his encounters with Rujub, an Indian mystic, during the tumultuous period.