The Gothic Quest.: A History of the Gothic Novel.

London: The Fortune Press,, [1938]. First edition, first impression, number 943 of 950 numbered copies. The Gothic Quest was the first instalment of Summers's two part study of the gothic novel and was followed by A Gothic Bibliography in 1940, a work still much referenced by collectors today. Montague Summers was an eccentric scholar ordained as deacon in the Church of England in 1908. "Rumours of studies in Satanism and a charge of pederasty, of which he was acquitted, terminated this phase of his career", and in 1909 he was received into the Church of Rome. Despite presenting himself as a Catholic priest from then on, asking to be addressed as Reverend and holding mass in his own chapel, no record of his ordination has ever been found. He is best known for his 1928 translation of the Malleus Maleficarum, to which he added much of his own character, and which helped cement the work in the popular imagination. Alongside his occult studies, to which he lent his complete credulity, Summers devoted much of his energies to the promotion of contemporarily unpopular literature. This included championing Restoration drama and, as here, the gothic novel. His scholarship was guided by enthusiastic idiosyncrasy, though backed up by immense learning. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Portrait frontispiece and 15 illustrated plates. Cloth sharp, foxing to outer leaves and plates, a couple of tender gutters due to heavy book block, remaining firm; thin jacket well-preserved and unclipped, spine panel browned, minor creasing and nicks to top edge: a near-fine copy in like jacket.