The Half-Hearted.

Isbister, London., 1900. First edition. First issue binding of grey-green pictorial buckram, top edge gilt. Octavo. 375 pages. One of the author's early novels, written when he was 24, and the first to be set in the present-day. The first half takes place in Scotland before the disheartened main character travels to northern India where he redeems himself in defence of the Empire.On the front pastedown is the gilt monogrammed Brackenbury bookplate of Hugh Walpole. A number of these bookplates were fixed by an unscrupulous dealer into books which did not come from Walpole's library and there is no way knowing if this was one such. There are, however, a couple of other links between the two novelists: in 1917 Walpole was appointed to a post in the Foreign Office at the Department of Information which was headed by Buchan; on the publication of Walpole's novel Rogue Herries, it was described by Buchan as the finest English novel since Jude the Obscure.Contemporary (1900) ownership inscription on front free endpaper. Some light spotting to fore-edge. Small snags to head and tail of spine. Very good indeed. Scarce, bordering on rare in such presentable condition.