NESBIT, E[dith]. The Complete History of the Bastable Family. London: Ernest Benn [1928]. 8vo, 944pp. Red cloth pictorially stamped in gilt and blind. Color frontispiece, 8 full-page half-tone illustrations, and 38 full-page b&w illustrations. Spine ends and corners a tad rubbed, slight soiling to all sheet edges, light foxing to endpapers, light brown spot at the bottom corner of pages 673-693 (text unaffected), else a clean, tight copy.

 

First hardcover omnibus edition. E. Nesbit’s beloved Bastable children have enchanted readers since their first appearance in 1899’s The Story of the Treasure Seekers. This lovely hardcover edition from 1928 is the first time that the three novels featuring these intrepid and imaginative children were compiled together in one volume. Featuring a color frontispiece for the compilation as well as a half-tone frontispiece for The Wouldbegoods by Edmund Blampied; 6 wonderful, full-page illustrations by Gordon Browne for The Story of the Treasure Seekers; 7 lush half-tone illustrations by Arthur H. Buckland for The Wouldbegoods; and 32 full-page b&w illustrations by Charles E. Brock for The New Treasure Seekers; this is a handsome edition of these beloved novels by the early master of children’s fantasy.