Son of Porthos Or, the death of Aramis [or rather, an abridged translation of Le Fils de Porthos].

London: Walter Scott, Ltd, 1893. Cloth. Very Good. [1893?]. 8vo, pp. 284, [20 catalogue]; curiously, a number of gatherings secured by staples (rusty). Original purple cloth, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, blind ruling to upper board. Spine cocked and sunned, bruising and wear to extremities. Foxing to front and rear, POI to ffep: "George S. Butler./ St. Andrew's Day. 1898," spine cracked twice between later gatherings, one loose, but binding remains firm. A robust copy of this early example of a successful literary spin-off. Very good Included by BL in its 'Doubtful and Supposititious Works' list, this is an early abridged translation into English of Paul Mahalin's popular Le Fils de Porthos, which was incorrectly attributed to Alexandre Dumas. Paul Mahalin (1828-1899) was a prolific French author and journalist, who contributed to Alexandre Dumas's newspaper Le Mousquetaire. As this title attests, however, he was also the author of numerous Dumasian spin-offs (and was not alone in exploiting the looser copyright legislation of the period). While imitators of Dumas abounded, Mahalin took up the author's celebrated characters and pushed their stories further. He also wrote The Godson of Aramis and D'Artagnan (which covered the missing decades between The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After), as well as Mademoiselle Montecristo. Mahalin wrote under a number of pseudonyms, including �mile Blondet (after a character in Honor� de Balzac's La Com�die humaine) and Triolet.