The Martian was written by George du Maurier and published by Harpers in 1897. It’s a semi-autobiographical novel about two friends from their school days in Paris, and includes elements of fantasy and fairy tale.  

Size: 10 1/4 x 7 1/2 in. 

Barty is a gifted, mischievous young man who spends time in the army after finishing school, but resigns because of vision loss. He seeks help for his vision problems and becomes suicidal, and he dreams that he has a guardian spirit named Martia, a female spirit from Mars. Martia offers offers guidance to Barty and suggests he become an author, Barty marries and Martia is incarnated in the form of his daughter, and when the child dies, her spirit returns to Mars and Barty also passes away. 

Du Maurier struggled with vision loss in his own life, and the book is the author’s third novel. Du Maurier (1834 - 1896) was born in Paris and because of his vision problems, moved to London and gave up painting in favor of drawing, and his skilled draftsmanship guaranteed his success. His satiric caricatures were aimed at the nouveau riche and the aesthetes led by Oscar Wilde, and his second novel, Trilby, features Svengali, an evil musical genius and hypnotist, and the novel fit right into the gothic horror genre that was undergoing a revival, and Trilby evidently inspired Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel, The Phantom of the Opera. His granddaughter, Daphne du Maurier, was a successful writer in her own right too.  

The book is a limited and numbered edition. It is number 302 of only 500 copies printed, it measures 10 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches wide, with fleurs de lis decorating the spine and front cover, blank endpapers, a frontis portrait of du Maurier, then the title page, which says the illustrations were done by the author, then the limitation page, a two-page list of Illustrations, 409 pages of text, deckled edges, sepia-colored plates, and the top edge is gilt.  

The book is in good condition, with hinge cracks and foxing, bumps on the crown and light soiling on the spine, and overall a good copy for this interesting novel by du Maurier.  

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