New York: Vincent Parke and Company, 1911. Edition d’Amiens. Limited to 600 numbered copies, of which this is 122 and signed by R.G. Lancaster, Registrar. Bound by Frost of Bath ca. 1960 in full crimson polished calf, covers with double-gilt rules, spines with five shallow raised bands decoratively tooled in gilt in compartments, purple and green morocco gilt lettering labels, board edges and turn-ins decoratively gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Fifteen large octavo volumes (8 5/8 x 5 13/16 inches; 220 x 151 mm). Hand-colored frontispieces, signed by the colorist, and numerous tinted plates, with descriptive tissue guards. Volume 5 has small chip at crown. Hand-illuminated limitation leaf. A very Fine set.

Jules Verne was a “French writer whose works shaped the development of modern science fiction…In 1863 Verne published the first of his Voyages extraordinaires—Cinq semaines en ballon (1863; Five Weeks in a Balloon). The great success of the tale encouraged him to produce others in the same vein of romantic adventure, with increasingly deft depictions of fantastic but nonetheless carefully conceived imaginary scientific wonders. The Voyages continued with Le Voyage au centre de la Terre (1864; A Journey to the Center of the Earth), De la Terre à la Lune (1865; From the Earth to the Moon), Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers (1869-70; Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea), and L’Île mystérieuse (1874; The Mysterious Island), in which he foresaw a number of scientific devices and developments, including the submarine, the aqualung, television, and space travel. Verne’s novels were enormously popular throughout the world; one in particular, the grippingly realistic Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours (1873; Around the World in Eighty Days), generated great excitement during its serial publication in Le Temps and remained one of his most popular works” (Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature). Here in 15 lovely volumes are some of his most imaginative and influential works. (Item #3800)