Asmodeus Large Author Pelham Eugene, First Edition (1 results)

12mo, pp. [i-iii] iv [13] 14-227 [228: blank] [note: text complete despite gap in pagination] + 4 pages of ads precede title leaf and 24 pages of ads follow page [228], flyleaves at front and rear, original quarter brown cloth and drab boards, printed paper label affixed to spine panel, all edges untrimmed. First edition. First book publication of this work which first appeared in the NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. Loosely organized novel with much supernatural content, containing the intercalated short story, "The Tale of Kosem Kesamim." The narrator, bored of life, is taken by the devil Asmodeus on a tour of new sensations and "attends a witches' Sabbath, has an amour with a witch, and meets Kosem Kesamim, the greatest wizard of all time . The narrator lives for a time in Cyprolis, an underground city (allegorical for sex?). He travels to the center of the earth and sees a gigantic stone figure with countless strings emerging from it -- presumably Fate. Most of ASMODEUS AT LARGE is briskly written and entertaining, in the lively manner than Bulwer sometimes used when not writing of supernatural topics." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 300. "In the United States, where Bulwer's contemporary reputation was if anything even greater than in Britain, the author of PELHAM had a notable effect upon Edgar Allan Poe. As 'the most powerful influence on Poe's early prose writing,' Bulwer seems to stand, in the opinion of Michael Allen, behind Poe's frequent literary use of a persona and his general elaboration of the 'fictional method of self-projection.' Poe naturally drew his inspiration in this regard not only from the self-propagandizing PELHAM but more especially from Bulwer's shorter tales, such as 'Monos and Daimonos' (1830), and from the discursive ASMODEUS AT LARGE series (1833)." - Christensen, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, pp. 223-224. Bulwer's work, in turn, is pretty clearly indebted to FAUST and LeSage's LE DIABLE BOITEUX. Sadleir 388. NCBEL III 918. Early owner's signature and date on the verso of rear flyleaf. Cloth faded, boards spotted and worn, paper spine label largely perished, scattered foxing throughout the text, a good copy. Quite scarce in original garb. (#164323).