NIETZSCHE, Friedrich -The Case of Wagner. Nietzsche contra Wagner, Twilight of the idols, The Antich

London: H. Henry & Co. Ltd., 1896. 354pp. (6pp) ads. Tall Octavo, Publisher s original dark blue cloth. Bright gilt-stamping to the spine and cover. A bit of light wear on the edges and tips, by a very clean uncut copy. The Thomas Common translation of these four works that was published as part of the aborted Collected Works of Friedrich Nietzsche. That partial series was based on the definitive collected works in German then being prepared by Fritz Koegel for the publisher, Naumann. This is the FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE as published by Henry & Co (Publisher stamp at base of spine). This is volume Xl of the English series edited by Alexander Tille (who wrote the introduction here) and published by Macmillan in the U.S. and Henry & Co. in England. After Henry & Company went bankrupt, leaving two unpublished works (The Dawn of Day and The Genealogy of Morals) still in the process of translation. The remaining sheets were sold to T. Fisher Unwin, who sold some of the first issue sheets of The Case of Wagner as is, bound in second issue boards with their imprint and produced a second. The English publication was taken up by Fisher Unwin in 1899, but the whole operation fell apart soon after that. Although unsuccessful, the edition was not without influence: Havelock Ellis was prompted to write a three-part introductory essay on Nietzsche for the Savoy in 1896, and Common's translation was received as 'careful and laudably idiomatic' (Thatcher, Nietzsche in England 1890-1914, 1970, 30). The publication of the full collected works on English was finally begun again in 1907 under the editorship of Oscar Levy. A very pleasing copy of a scarce work which is now Mylar protected and housed in a custom slipcase.