FANTASTIC TALES OR THE WAY TO ATTAIN A BOOK FULL OF PANTAGRUELISM, Now For the First Time Done into English by Arthur Machen, Translator of the Heptameron of Margaret of Navarre.

First edition, first printing of Arthur Machen's translation. Contemporary half red morocco, double ruled in gilt to the upper and lower boards, five raised bands, gilt ruled compartments and titles in gilt to the spine. Top edge gilt. Marbled endpapers. Illustrated with a frontispiece and 8 further full page illustrations (some signed J. S. Beckham). An excellent near fine copy, the binding square and firm with just light rubbing at the extremities. The contents, with the bookplate of The Reverend William Major Scott to the front pastedown, an early (pre-1923) clipped catalogue description tipped in at the reverse of the front endpaper and mild toning to the text block edges are otherwise clean throughout. A handsome example.

The first printing of Machen's translation of the seventeenth century French text Moyen de Parvenir by the poet and polymath Beroalde de Verville.Issued in a limited edition of 500 copies, this example is numbered 38 and stamped in red ink on the limitation page. A rare book in the early twentieth century, the translation was subsequently reprinted with a new eight page introduction as a signed limited edition in 1923.