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Praed, [Rosa Campbell]. Shirley, Ralph.
Soul of Nyria.
Publisher: Rider & Co., London;
Date of Publication: 1931
Stock Code: 14317
First Edition. Octavo, pp., 446, includes the half-title, four portrait plates, and double-page map of Rome, as called for. Original publisher’s navy blue cloth, blind rules to boards, titled in gilt to spine. Ex-library roundel stamp of ‘Bessant Memorial Library’ to front free-endpaper, and shelf-mark stickers to spine. Spine lightly sunned, extending slightly to top of upper board. Contents very lightly toned to margins. Overall, a very good copy. Rosa Campbell Praed (1851-1935) was an Australian novelist, who wrote extensively on colonial society, and on gender politics. After separating from her husband in 1897, Praed moved in with Nancy Hayward, a psychic medium whom Praed believed had been a German slave-girl in Flavian Rome. Praed transformed the seances that she and Hayward conducted into the novel ‘Nyria’ (1904). This publication is an expanded account of the experiences Hayward described in her seances, accompanied with a critical introduction by the leading occultist Sir Ralph Shirley (1865-1946). £95.00