Author:
Title: Ned Nimble Amongst the Bushrangers of Australia.
Description: London, Edwin J. Brett [188-?]. Two volumes large octavo, bound together in a modern wrapper with a copy of a cover mounted; original illustrated wrappers bound in. 276pp, 23 full page illustrations. Some repairs and splodges to the wrappers; natural browning of the paper in the first volume; still, rather good. ¶ Ned Nimble's Australian romp appeared in the 'Boys of England' in 1882 and in parts and collected editions in two versions. This is the first, coming out of the Boys of England offices. The other comes out of Harkaway House, a name change made in the early nineties. The second version came in, I think, 17 weekly parts adding up to 264 pages. The wrappers are sensibly recycled with part numbers and price at the top (parts 28 and 30, price 4d) and volume numbers and new price stamped at the bottom (Nimble Series Vol 9 and 10; price one shilling). And the volumes are recycled from unsold parts with the original stab marks visible. I don't get how they could have spun this out to 30 parts, there are clearly 23. Trove finds two copies of the second version and one of this. But the covers of that one have different Nimble series volume numbers. Confused? Bored?

Keywords: literature fiction juvinile penny dreadful bloods thrillers c19th England Australia bushrangers