THE DISENTANGLERS.

London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1902. First edition. "Wild, roaring fun" (Daily News, 20th November 1902). Two well-connected but impoverished young men recruit a team of likewise young, charming and penniless men and women, available for hire to disrupt and disentangle unfortunate or unsuitable romantic attachments before too much harm can be done either to the lovers or, more particularly, their families - "Adventure of the Exemplary Earl", "Adventure of the Lady Novelist and the Vaccinationist", "Adventure of the Fair American", and other tales. "In 'The Disentanglers' we have the apotheosis of the detective-story, with, as Mr. Lang's Canadian millionaire would say, 'every modern improvement', divorced, too, from 'all that cheap revolver business', to quote the hero and Disentangler-in-Chief ... Apart from the excellent construction and swing of the stories, there is endless fun in the sly digs at literature, modern and ancient - at the penny novelette, the British Museum girl, and the Celtic minor poet" (The Sketch, 3rd December 1902). Crown 8vo (20cm). [xii],418,[ii]pp. Frontispiece and six perfectly judged plates by Henry Justice Ford (1860-1941). Original decorative cloth - "a bold black and red design on its light coloured cloth cleverly indicative of the contents" (The Gentlewoman, 13th December 1902) - the cloth slightly darkened; a handful of marks and spots; light spotting of edges, but otherwise a very good copy.