Details
DOUGLAS, NORMAN. Autograph manuscript signed of the short story "The Last Word," Bludesch, Vorarlberg, Austria, [probably 1924]. 16 pages, 4to, in ink on both sides of lined sheets, portions of two pages pasted over previous drafts with mild staining caused by the glue, a working draft with extensive revisions, signed by Douglas with his address at end, with note by him to typist at head of first page: "Copy and two carbons. Pageing in pencil"; bound with the 15 pages of printed text excerpted from "Experiments" in purple morocco, spine gilt-lettered, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, a little faded.
Douglas's story, "in memory of Maupassant," is about four Frenchmen in a country house swapping delicious tales of gruesome, ignoble deaths, trying to achieve "the Last Word" on the subject. This proves to be an account of the death of an elderly, incapacitated woman devoured while alive by her starving cats. "The Last Word" was published in Ideas, November 10, 1916, pp. 7-8. "This is a revised version of 'The Ignoble' which appeared in Unprofessional Tales (1901). It was included in Experiments (1925) under this title, after revision" (Woolf, C143). The present manuscript is of the printed text in Experiments.
Douglas's story, "in memory of Maupassant," is about four Frenchmen in a country house swapping delicious tales of gruesome, ignoble deaths, trying to achieve "the Last Word" on the subject. This proves to be an account of the death of an elderly, incapacitated woman devoured while alive by her starving cats. "The Last Word" was published in Ideas, November 10, 1916, pp. 7-8. "This is a revised version of 'The Ignoble' which appeared in Unprofessional Tales (1901). It was included in Experiments (1925) under this title, after revision" (Woolf, C143). The present manuscript is of the printed text in Experiments.