Jules Verne - Les Indes-Noires - 1894

Jules Verne. The Black Indies.

Illustrations by Férat, engravings by Charles Barbant.

Paris, Bibliothèque d’éducation et de récréation, Jules Hetzel publisher. SD (1894). Large 4to, simple edition. 176 pages. Red percaline publisher binding with Souze plaque, Magnier binding. Gilded edges. Blue endpapers. HF catalog at the end.

Binding on the front board and spine bright with lively gilt. A blotch faded in the title medallion on the front board. Small impact without loss in the middle of the upper hinge, headcaps creased with light loss at the upper head end (see photos), faded stains on the second board (see photos), rubbing to the corners (see photos). Spine slightly darker as is often the case. Interior solid and in good condition.

Jules Verne plunges the reader into the depths of a Scottish coal mine abandoned and then revived. The plot follows engineer James Starr and the family of the old miner Simon Ford who, ten years after the site’s closure, discover a new and gigantic underground vein. As they try to establish a true underground mining city, their project is threatened by unexplained sabotage and phenomena that appear to be supernatural, which they must solve to save their community.

A title rather uncommon in this binding, with front board and spine bearing bright gilt.