Had I But Known: A Collection of Literary Foreshadowing
Riverside, CA: Bo Press Miniature Books, 2015. Hardcover. Mary Roberts Rinehart and others of the "Golden Age" of mystery writing became known as the "Had I But Known" school for their use of this useful bit of prolepsis: a foreshadowing device that allows a work-around for the strictures of first-person narration. I've collected examples from all eras of literature and placed them each on their own page, like little jewels of purple prose.
~ "Had I but known that Saacho was his father, I woulf have poured a deluge of my blood to save one drop of his." The Spanish Friar, by John Dryden
~ "Ah,had I but known:: the agony! the deceit! You cannot possibly imagine the trials, the letters, the steps, this strange fantasy exacts. I have seen only a few Academicians, but already my nerves are completely upset." The Letters of Charles Baudelaire to his Mother
~"In a state of suffocating agitation the mistress gasped forth the words, "Had I but known: Freiscutz! Presciosa! I'll turn every soul into the streets!" - The Spectator, Volume 38 Carl Maria von Weber
A choice collection ('though I say it myself), printed in Garamond Premier Pro on Monarch Superfine paper, and bound in a Japanese chiyogami paper printed with a stormy sea and turbulent waves, a fitting backdrop for a young woman in a lacy nightgown fleeing a dark castle with a single light in the tower window . . . Size: 2" x 2 1/2" inches. 100 pages, 7 illustrations. Fine.
Item #33444
Price: $50.00