Carroll, Lewis - Sylvie and Bruno [and] Sylvie and Bruno Concluded - Macmillan and Co: London, 1889 & 1893 - First Edition / First Printing / First State - Both with the correct date on the title pages and no mentions of later printings as required in order to denote the first printing of the first edition. Concluded with the first issue Chapter VII and Chapter VIII errors on the content page.
The Mad Gardener's Song
He thought he saw an Elephant,
That practised on a fife:
He looked again, and found it was
A letter from his wife.
'At length I realise,' he said,
'The bitterness of Life!'
He thought he saw a Buffalo
Upon the chimney-piece:
He looked again, and found it was
His Sister's Husband's Niece.
'Unless you leave this house,' he said,
'I'll send for the Police!'
He thought he saw a Rattlesnake
That questioned him in Greek:
He looked again, and found it was
The Middle of Next Week.
'The one thing I regret,' he said,
'Is that it cannot speak!'
He thought he saw a Banker's Clerk
Descending from the bus:
He looked again, and found it was
A Hippopotamus.
'If this should stay to dine,' he said,
'There won't be much for us!'
He thought he saw a Kangaroo
That worked a coffee-mill:
He looked again, and found it was
A Vegetable-Pill.
'Were I to swallow this,' he said,
'I should be very ill!'
He thought he saw a Coach-and-Four
That stood beside his bed:
He looked again, and found it was
A Bear without a Head.
'Poor thing,' he said, 'poor silly thing!
It's waiting to be fed!'
He thought he saw an Albatross
That fluttered round the lamp:
He looked again, and found it was
A Penny-Postage Stamp.
'You'd best be getting home,' he said:
'The nights are very damp!'
He thought he saw a Garden-Door
That opened with a key:
He looked again, and found it was
A Double Rule of Three:
'And all its mystery,' he said,
'Is clear as day to me!'
He thought he saw a Argument
That proved he was the Pope:
He looked again, and found it was
A Bar of Mottled Soap.
'A fact so dread,' he faintly said,
'Extinguishes all hope!”
Sylvie and Bruno has fraying, rubbing, splitting, sunning, and other signs of wear. Its is however complete and clean internally. Sylvie and Bruno Concluded is brighter and cleaner with much less overall wear. Concluded also retains the scarce unbound Advertisement leaf in which Carroll voices his displeasure with the quality of Thru the Looking Glass and urges owners to mail them in for replacement. Being a loose leaf this is more often than not missing and is not often seen this well preserved. Vol 1 with the three ads bound at the rear and Vol 2 with five ads as called for. Both copies with gilt edges and with 46 illustrations each by Harry Furniss. At some point a previous owner commissioned two matching cloth clamshell cases for these titles. Both clamshells have rubbing, soiling, and signs of wear but as a whole are presentable and are doing a nice job of keeping the novels safe. An increasingly uncommon set in their earliest printings/states of Lewis Carroll’s last novels published in his lifetime. These were not well received, did not sell many copies, and have subsequently become hard to track down. The audience was likely upset that they weren’t as fantastical and nonsensical as the Alice in Wonderland books. It is thru these books that Carroll gave us his beloved poem The Mad Gardener’s Song.