The Blue Dwarf, A Tale of Love, Mystery & Crime, by Percy Bolingbroke St John, pub. Hogarth House c. 1870. Three volumes in one, each coloured cover bound in, volumes 1 and 3 with separate title pages as issued. 438 pp, 17 folding plates, fifteen coloured (as issued) with b/w engravings throughout. Gathered together in a handsome, half-leather bespoke binding of blue cloth with gilt stylings and title to the spine. A rare, complete, Victorian 'Penny Dreadful'. The Blue Dwarf, A Tale of Love, Mystery & Crime is not to be confused with another Penny Dreadful, The Blue Dwarf, A Novel, by Lady Esther Hope, pub Harrison, c. 1860-61 though they bear similarities, and it has been speculated that 'Lady Esther Hope' was a pseudonym of Percy Bolingbroke St John, though there is no proof of this. The Blue Dwarf, A Novel, had introduced the character of 'Sapathwa', a child of an aristocratic English family born in Malaysia, who returns to England, where he discovers his stepbrother has been cheated out of his legacy by his evil brother. Sapathwa's dwarfism and his hideousness (much underlined) have left him shunned by society, and he takes up with gypsies, outlaws and other outsiders. Eventually, he manages to help his stepbrother to reclaim his rightful inheritance and lives out the rest of his life in quiet retirement. The publisher, Edward Harrison, had put out a long Penny Dreadful, Black Bess, featuring Dick Turpin, which had been enormously popular. Impossible to say whether it was his or St John's idea to marry, Frankenstein's Monster-like, the Blue Dwarf with the DickTurpin story to produce The Blue Dwarf, A Tale of Love, Mystery & Crime. St John threw the kitchen sink at the story, which involves Mohican Indians, Rob Roy, revolting Irish peasantry and Bow Street Runners. Entirely a-historical, it is rather more of a straightforward adventure story than the earlier The Blue Dwarf, A Novel, which was set in the Napoleonic era and had strong Gothic themes. Finally, it is worth making the point that the character of the Blue Dwarf is a 'heroic' character, noted for his generosity, though single-minded in his pursuit of justice for his half-brother. At the end, he demonstrates a merciless quality as he consigns the villain to a watery death, refusing to heed the latter's cries for mercy, but the story is notable for portraying a dwarfish character in a good light as, previously, such characters would, almost inevitably, have been cast as villainous.