Full Title:

Title page recto: DOMNEI | A COMEDY OF WOMAN-WORSHIP | BY JAMES BRANCH CABELL | WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY | JOSEPH HERGESHEIMER [three devices] | [in italic] "En cor gentil domnei per mort no passa." | JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITED | LONDON [seven devices] (see image above).

Title page verso: [in italic] First Published in 1927 | MADE AND PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY | THE GARDEN CITY PRESS LIMITED, LETCHWORTH, HERTS (see image above).

Publication:

London: John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd., 1927

Collation:

Crown octavo [18.9 cm. (7 7/16 in.) x 13.3 cm. (5 ¼ in.)]; Pp. 4 unnumbered pages of preliminaries + viii + 218 + 4 unnumbered pages of advertisements; leaf not counted in pagination: half-title recto, BY THE SAME AUTHOR verso; leaf not counted in pagination: recto blank, frontispiece verso; (i) title page; (ii) publication data; (iii) dedication (verso blank); (v) quotation (verso blank); vii-viii Contents; (1) fly-title: A PREFACE by Joseph Hergesheimer (verso blank), 3-9 text of preface (verso blank); (11) fly-title: CRITICAL COMMENT (verso blank); 13-14 text of Critical Comment; (15) poem "THE ARGUMENT" attributed to Sir William Allonby (verso blank); (17) fly-title: PART ONE; (18) attribution of the text to The Romance of Lusignan by Nicolas de Caen; 19-201 text (verso blank); (203) fly-title: THE AFTERWORD (verso blank); 205-212 text of The Afterword; (213) fly-title BIBLIOGRAPHY (verso blank); 215-218 text of The Bibliography; 4 unnumbered pages of advertisements. Pages (1), (11), (17), (51), (81), (139), (203), and (213) are fly-titles. Pages (iv), (vi), (2), (10), (12), (18), (52), (82), (138), (140), (202), (204), and (214) are blank.

Binding:

Blue cloth, dark blue lettering and decorations on cover and spine; top edge trimmed, else untrimmed. Spine: [triple decorated rule on blue field] DOMNEI | JAMES | BRANCH | CABELL | [triple decorated rule on blue field]. Front cover: [all within triple decorated ruled boxes on blue field] DOMNEI | JAMES | BRANCH CABELL (see image above).

Frontispiece:

Pen and ink drawing of Perion kneeling before his lost image of Melicent, by Frank C. Pápe. Subscript reads [all enclosed in a decorated box, in decorative script] "Yet that which fayrest is, but Few beholde, | Her soul adornd with vertues manifold." (see image above).

Note: The image illustrates the last scene of the novel.

Dedication:

TO | SARAH READ McADAMS | IN GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION (see image above).

Notes:

This binding variation is one of the LAST-MINUTE ADDENDA Hall listed at the very end of his bibliography, pp. 244-245. These variations were reported to him by others, and Hall notes that he did not have the opportunity to examine a copy in this state. The Silver Stallion has closely examined, side-by-side, a copy of the "normal" binding, Dom-B1 (E), with one that generally matches his Dom-B1a (E). The differences are subtle and not easy to see on screen, but they are there. Hall's correspondent reported blue decorations and black lettering in this binding. We see both lettering and decorations as dark blue. It requires close examination and a bright light, though, to really see any differences at all, so we are reasonably confident in assigning the Dom-A1a (E) code to this example. If any reader can provide scans of a copy that exactly matches Hall's description, please contact us.