Sylvie and Bruno Concluded. With Forty-Six Illustrations by Harry Furniss.

Bookseller Notes

Inscribed at the head of the title-page, to 'Lady Eustace Cecil, with the Author's sincere regards. Dec. 28, 1893'. The recipient, ne Gertrude Scott, was the wife of Lord Eustace Cecil, a Tory M.P. (like his father-in-law) - with whom Dodgson spent time at the family seat of Hatfield House, residence of Cecil's brother, the Marquess of Salisbury. Both Lady Eustace Cecil and her niece, Maud, have been suggested as models for the character of 'Lady Muriel' in this work.Carroll's 'Advertisement' (Williams 219), issued with this edition, is generally discarded. It reflects his admirable, nearly obsessive, concern with the production qualities of his books: 'I am deeply annoyed to find that the last issue of "Through the Looking-Glass,"... has been put on sale without its being noticed that most of the pictures have failed so much, in the printing, as to make the book not worth buying.' He asked that copies be returned to the publisher in return for copies of the next issue. Those returned he proposed giving to 'Mechanics' Institutes, Village Reading-Rooms, and similar institutions, where the means for purchasing such books are scanty'. Subsequent issues of Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, his final work of fiction, had white endpapers.