[The Hornblower Novels].

complete set in dustjacket - 2 vols signed by the author

A superb set of the complete Hornblower novels in their original unclipped dustjackets, seldom found thus.

The set includes The Happy Return signed by the author on the half-title, and the first separate edition of Flying Colours, published one day after Flying Colours including A Ship of the Line, signed by the author on the title page. The final volume, Hornblower and the Crisis, comprises the last, unfinished novel and two short stories appearing in book form for the first time. There were a further three short stories published in Argosy from March to May 1941 which do not appear in book form. The Happy Return, A Ship of the Line, and Flying Colours are elusive in jacket.

First editions, first impressions, with first separate edition of 'Flying Colours', first & fourth vols signed by the author; 12 vols, 8vo; minor offsetting to endpapers, else unmarked internally; publisher's first issue cloth in various colours, titles to spines white, silver, or gilt, ghosting through the jacket to the spine of 'A Ship of the Line', some spotting to edges of first few vols, all in original unclipped first issue pictorial dustjackets, 'Flying Colours' with some chipping to head and foot of spine panel (costing some lettering), minor chipping and edge-wear elsewhere, nonetheless an excellent set.