1899 The Lost Heir

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Publishers' Original Binding

The first edition of this work (Newbolt 87.1).

In the publisher's original cloth binding. 

Published by James Bowden, who had been Managing Director of Ward Lock and Bowden Limited for several years. According to Newbolt's Bibliography, this work is an example of book production that worried Henty because it seemed to present an adult novel as a book for boys, and might therefore infringe the terms of his contract with Blackie. It was later re-issued by T. Fisher Unwin. 

Illustrated with a frontispiece and three plates. With eight pages of advertisements to the rear. Collated, complete. 

'The Lost Heir' follows a wealthy girl named Hilda, who can read lips due to her best friend, secretly-deaf Netta. When Hilda's guardian dies mysteriously and his heir is kidnapped, the girls must use their skills to find the boy and restore him to his place.

A unique Henty novel in that it is typically grouped together with Henty's novels for boys rather than the novel for adults it set out to be.