The Tides ebb out to the Night. Being the journal of a young man, Basil Brooke. Edited by his friend H. Langley
London: H. Henry & Co. (1896). 311pp. A rare decadent novel in the form of a journal and letters, which resembles a French Symbolism work. The introduction cautions: "Basil Brooke....[has] a tendency toward softness, fatalistic acquiescence, and pervasive unsatisfactoriness which are so regrettably "in the air"...he becomes one which it may be good to present at the present time- if only for warning." There are descriptions of decadent London rooms and much drug-taking and a failed romance. The introduction also notes that the book was completed before the recent death of a well known French writer (Paul Verlaine?). Brian Reade's penned ownership signature on endpaper and his penciled notation where Beardsley is mentioned in the text. Quite rare- there appear to be no institutional copies in the US. Good in boards, marbled endpapers, light wear to corners, spine a bit dulled. Gilt stamp on front cover of the Kingsley hotel, so this is likely a later binding. More