Full tree calf binding with brown title plate, gilt banding and decoration on the spine. Gilt college emblem and decorative edging on the boards. All edges marbled with matching pastedowns.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

  A much underrated book lovingly read by Queen Victoria’s children and grandchildren.

The World’s Desire is a fantasy novel first published in 1890 and written by H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the fortieth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in January 1972.

The World’s Desire is the story of the hero Odysseus, mainly referred to as “the Wanderer” for the bulk of the novel. Odysseus returns home to Ithaca after his second, unsung journey. He is hoping to find a “home at peace, wife dear and true and his son worthy of him”. He does not find any of the three; instead his home is ravaged by a plague and his wife Penelope has been slain. As he grieves, he is visited by an old flame, Helen of Troy, for whom the novel is named. Helen leads him to equip himself with the Bow of Eurytus and embark on his last journey. This is an exhausting journey in which he encounters a Pharaoh who is wed to a murderess beauty, a holy and helpful priest, and his own fate.

The novel features the Biblical Exodus from Egypt as a subplot.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard KBE (22 June 1856 – 14 May 1925) was an English writer of adventure fiction romances set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a pioneer of the lost world literary genre. He was also involved in land reform throughout the British Empire. His stories, situated at the lighter end of Victorian literature, continue to be popular and influential.

Andrew Lang FBA (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.