The English Mail Coach [and] Joan of Arc

New York: Henry Holt, 1893. No stated edition. Hardcover. Good. 138p, no ills. In the publisher's series, Reading for Students. Edited with introduction and notes by J.M. Hart. Spine frayed, ghost of old sticker on front cover, first two pages loosening. Previous owners' ink stamp and blindstamp on front endpaper. Student edition of two of De Quincey's essays. "The English Mail Coach," considered one of his masterpieces, was first published in 3 parts in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1849. Part 1 describes the glories of the British mail coach system and the sensations of riding in a mail coach. In part 2 De Quincey recalls his experience atop a mail coach as it nearly collided with a gig (the coach driver had fallen asleep). Part 3 is comprised of De Quincey's opium dreams that refer to coaching, near-death, and other themes in parts 1 and 2. "Joan of Arc" is an imagined recreation of Joan's life. Can be sent outside the US for less than the default shipping rate.