STOKER, Bram.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Snake's Pass. First edition, pre-publication presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "Henry A. Blyth, from Bram Stoker. 17.11.90". Publication took place the next day, the title page being post-dated 1891. Blyth, who belonged to a wine merchant family with which Stoker was long acquainted, later received a copy of Dracula (1897) inscribed "to my old friend".Blyth (1843-1901) was the son of Caroline Gilbey (1815-1894), whose brothers Sir Walter Gilbey and Alfred Gilbey founded W. & A. Gilbey on the advice of another brother, Henry Parry Gilbey. Henry Parry's granddaughter Marguerite "Daisy" Ada Gilbey Riviere was the dedicatee of Stoker's The Mystery of the Sea (1902): "To Daisy Gilbey Riviere, of the third generation of loving and loyal friends". Blyth was Riviere's first cousin once removed. His obituary noted he was a partner in the family firm, which undoubtedly served the wine-thirsty Stoker. It also observed that Blyth's funeral received a wreath from Sir Henry Irving, who famously sparred with Stoker over Dracula and frustrated efforts to stage the novel at the Lyceum theatre.The Snake's Pass is Stoker's first novel and his second book of fiction, following the story collection Under the Sunset (1882). The novel is centred on the legend of Saint Patrick defeating the king of the snakes in Ireland and is "a heady blend of romance, travel narrative, adventure tale, folk tradition, and national tale. It also demonstrates that long before Dracula,

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