LANG, Andrew “Dreams and Ghosts” [Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897]

LANG, Andrew. Dreams and Ghosts.

London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897. New Edition (published the same year as the first). Octavo, approximately 7.75" x 5.25". xviii + 301pp + 32pp publisher’s catalog. Original pictorial blue cloth stamped in navy and gray to boards, spine lettered in gilt with decorative device; top edge gilt. Rubbing at edges and joints with light wear at spine ends. Mild spotting to endpapers and green* bookseller ticket to front pastedown. Very Good.

A handsome late-Victorian exploration of dreams, apparitions, and psychic phenomena by Andrew Lang, drawing together anecdotes of hallucinations, wraiths, Icelandic ghosts, and assorted “mixed bogies.” The striking Art Nouveau-style cover design—three spectral forms rising from braziers—remains one of the more evocative trade bindings of the period.

*Unconfirmed but the green is suspiciously similar to Paris Green, which contains arsenic and would not have been inconsistent with the time period. Take caution please.