Book Details + Condition: James Speirs (London). First Edition, 1887. 240 pages. Hardcover. Bright blue cloth covers, with front embellished with gilt images of the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, and sun. Treatise on mythology and Christianity by English Swedenborgian physician and writer James John Garth Wilkinson. Topics include Greek, Egyptian, and Assyrian mythology, human evolution and creation, Swedenborg, Superstition, Idolatry, Serpent-myths, Divine and Human History, Paganism, and much more. Signed and inscribed by the author on half-title page: "The Countess A. de Noailles with faithful Regard from the Author, May 1887". Anna, Comtesse Mathieu de Noailles (1876 – 1933) was a Romanian-French writer, poet and a socialist feminist. She became the toast of Parisian high society, and wrote three novels, an autobiography, and many collections of poetry. She had friendly relations with the intellectual, literary and artistic elite of the day including Marcel Proust, Francis Jammes, Colette, André Gide, Frédéric Mistral, Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul Valéry, Jean Cocteau, Pierre Loti, Paul Hervieu, and Max Jacob. An overall firm and clean copy, with tight binding; rubbed corners, edges and spine ends; light foxing to first few pages; interior is clean and free of markings save owner name and author inscription on front endpapers.
