CHRYSAL: OR, THE ADVENTURES OF A GUINEA
Book Details + Condition: Arno Press (New York). First Edition thus, 1976. Part of Arno Press' hard-to-find "Supernatural & Occult Fiction" collection. Facsimile reprint of the original publication, originally released in 1760. By "An Adept" - Charles Johnstone. Hardcover with purple boards and silver titling to front and spine. Two volumes in one. 300 pages. From a Public Domain Review: One of the first of the immensely popular 18th-century "it-narratives", Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a Guinea, by the Irish writer Charles Johnstone, tells the tale of a coin and the human intrigue to which it finds itself bearing witness. After a rather dramatic and wonderfully overwrought beginning in which we learn of the coin being bestowed with consciousness and dug from a Peruvian mine, the monetary narrator proceeds to dish the dirt on various celebrities of the time as it passes from hand to hand, being conveniently present for a variety of gossip-worthy conversations, romps, and scandals. Spending some time circulating among the streets and elite of London, the coin also finds itself in the courts of Lisbon and Vienna, and the front-lines of war in Germany (the Seven Years' War was raging at the time), Canada, and the Caribbean.
From the massive occult collection of King Lawrence Parker - academic, dissertation author, and book collector extraordinaire. Book is in near-new, unread condition, with firm binding, bright boards, and a clean interior. Please see our other listings for more rare Arno Press publications.