The Devil's Motor: A Fantasy 1910 by MARIE CORELLI illustrated by Arthur Severn ~ car driving demon

Title: The Devil's Motor: A Fantasy

Author: Marie Corelli
Illustrator: Arthur Severn

Description: Red cloth boards decoratively stamped in black and gilt (gilt lettering; bat-winged wheels on the front cover). Spine ends softened; bottom corner tips of boards show a little exposure. Some spotting to rear endpapers, otherwise interior is clean and unmarked. Bottom corner of title page has been cracked and mended with archival tissue. One leaf is partially cracked along the inner hinge. Fifty-three leaves (printed on rectos only). Six color plates tipped-in. 11 x 8.5 inches. Printed in the City of London by the Edinburgh Press.

A limited production, experimentally produced by the publisher to convey an environment of smoke and exhaust. The edges of each page have been intentionally darkened to make it appear as if the book has been in a smoky environment and the book ''perfumed'' to smell like motor-oil.

A foreboding fantasy from the early days of the automobile, portraying greed, industrialization, the destruction of the natural world, the brutality of cities, and the human race's terror as it dives headlong into absolute destruction. The narrative describes a huge Car driven by a Demon, roaring and rumbling through the sky, mowing over the distraught people in their cities, the car splattered in blood, smoking and flaming, while this dark phantom urges the world into further deceptions, praising all who make the darkness, and exults as all sweetness is sucked out of the world.

Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: None

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Place: [London]
Year: 1910