Wet Magic by Nesbit, Signed (1 results)

First edition. 274 pages + 14 black & white illustrated plates and 1 page of ads. Signed by Nesbit in ink to the front endpaper for the child of one of her neighbours (the Noone family) in Jesson, Romney Marsh, with the child's initials, "D.N." in ink to the top of the same page. The book is quite firmly bound in the publisher's red cloth, lettered and decorated in gilt, the boards are slightly rubbed, bumped and marked with some past water damage to the spine and rear board. The text block is slightly toned and marked, with faint spots of foxing. Nesbit's last fantasy novel for children, involving a mermaid captured by a circus, and children faced with complex philosophical questions, such as whether it is better to endure awful reality or to take a pill which provides permanent blissful oblivion. Also, meta-fictional elements during an under-sea war, in which one of the enemies of the merfolk is a group of fictional characters, including Mr. Murdstone from David Copperfield, who become released and increasingly powerful the more the books they are in are read, and who can only be defeated by those who've never read the books and don't know who they are telling them so, and thereby wounding their vanity. Signed copies are uncommon.