[WEBB LOUDON, Jane (1807-1858)]
Lot 218

[WEBB LOUDON, Jane (1807-1858)]

The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century. London: Henry Colburn, 1827.

Closed12 July 2023

Price Realised

GBP 15,120

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[WEBB LOUDON, Jane (1807-1858)]
The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century. London: Henry Colburn, 1827.
A superlative copy of the first edition of a pioneering work of Science Fiction. Set in the year 2126, it describes an England filled with advanced technologies including steam-powered automaton lawyers and surgeons, coffee machines, and a sort of information highway akin to the Internet. The first English-language story to feature a reanimated Egyptian mummy, it was undoubtedly influenced by both the contemporary European fascination with Ancient Egypt and by the success of Mary Shelley’s own reanimation story, Frankenstein (1818). Fine and exceptionally fresh. Bleiler, Science-fiction, the Early Years, 2313.

12mo (185 x 113mm). Half-titles in vols. II and III (that for vol. I apparently not issued) (a few minor spots, one leaf in vol. III lightly soiled). Contemporary pink half calf over marbled boards, red morocco spine label lettered in gilt (very faintly soiled at extremities, two tiny abrasions to boards).