Description: A first edition of this 1899 novel (note: the copyright says 1898 and 1899 because it was originally serialized in the Saturday Evening Post). Willa Cather wrote of The Market-Place: "Unusual interest is attached to the posthumous work of that great man whose career ended so prematurely and so tragically. The story is a study in the ethics and purposes of money-getting, in the romantic element in modern business. In it finance is presented not as being merely the province of shrewdness, or greediness, or petty personal gratification, but of great projects, of great brain-battles, a field for the exercising of talent, daring, imagination, appealing to the strength of a strong man, filling the same place in men's lives that was once filled by the incentives of war... The hero of the story, "Joel Thorpe," is one of those men, huge of body, keen of brain, with cast iron nerves, as sound a heart as most men, and a magnificent capacity for bluff. He has lived and risked and lost in a dozen countries, been almost within reach of fortune a dozen times, and always missed her until, finally, in London, by promoting a great rubber syndicate he becomes a multi-millionaire. He marries the most beautiful and one of the most impecunious peeresses in England and retires to his country estate. There, as a gentleman of leisure, he loses his motive in life, loses power for lack of opportunity, and grows less commanding even in the eyes of his wife, who misses the uncompromising, barbaric strength which took her by storm and won her. Finally he evolves a gigantic philanthropic scheme of spending his money as laboriously as he made it. ...The young artist who illustrated the story gave to the pictures of "Joel Thorpe" very much the look of Harold Frederic himself, and they might almost stand for his portraits." This copy is in Fair to Good condition. Overall attractive, with clean text, but separation has started at the back cover, as shown in the pictures. A book plate states "Parish Library of the First Presbyterian Church, Lansingburgh, NY"
Price: 14.99 USD
Location: Oneonta, New York
End Time: 2024-05-16T15:54:52.000Z
Shipping Cost: 4.87 USD
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Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
Illustrator: Harrison Fisher
Special Attributes: 1st Edition
Author: Harold Frederic
Publisher: Frederick A. Stokes Co.
Subject: Literature & Fiction
Year Printed: 1899
