Guy Newell Boothby

We are happy to announce this classic book. Many of the books in our collection have not been published for decades and are therefore not broadly available to the readers. Our goal is to access the very large literary repository of general public books. The main contents of our entire classical books are the original works. To ensure high quality products, all the titles are chosen carefully by our staff. We hope you enjoy this classic.

We are happy to announce this classic book. Many of the books in our collection have not been published for decades and are therefore not broadly available to the readers. Our goal is to access the very large literary repository of general public books. The main contents of our entire classical books are the original works. To ensure high quality products, all the titles are chosen carefully by our staff. We hope you enjoy this classic.

Guy Newell Boothby was an Australian novelist and writer, born in Adelaide, son of Thomas Wilde Boothby, who for a time was a member of the South Australian Legislative Assembly. Guy Boothby's grandfather was Benjamin Boothby (1803-1868), judge of the supreme court of South Australia from 1853 to 1867. When Boothby was six, he traveled to England with his mother. Around 1890, he took the position of private secretary to the mayor of Adelaide, Australia, but was not content with the work due to little opportunity for advancement. He turned to his writing talents, writing librettos for 2 comic operas and stories about Australian life. Boothby moved back to the United Kingdom in 1894. He wrote over 50 books in the course of a decade, before dying of pneumonia in Bournemouth.

This is the first in Boothby's series of Dr. Nikola novels. It opens with the manager of a fine London restaurant preparing for a dinner reserved in an odd letter originating from Brazil 3 months prior, for 4 persons in a private room, where 3 guests will arrive showing cards with a red dot. One will be from China, one from South Africa, one from England, plus the host, Dr Nikola, who is of unknown nationality but is later revealed to travel the world widely. The letter specifies certain preparations, such as no electric lighting but rather candles with red shades, a small jug of fresh milk, and a porcelain saucer. After the 3 guests arrive, Dr Nikola makes his appearance. He is a somewhat tall slim man, "irreproachably dressed, with a neatness that bordered on the puritanical." After they dine and the servants leave the room, Dr Nicola opens a strange basket and removes a mysterious black cat, for whom the milk had of course been requested. Dr Nikola explains why he called them together -- to execute his plans of revenge against a very wealthy someone who did him great harm. He offers each of them a large sum of money if they perform as he asks: "I demand from you your whole and entire labour. While you are serving me you are mine body and soul. I know you are trustworthy. I have had good proof that you are--pardon the expression--unscrupulous, and I flatter myself you are silent. What is more, I shall tell you nothing beyond what is necessary for the carrying out of my scheme, so that you could not betray me if you would. Now for my plans "

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This fourth novel of Boothby's Dr. Nikola series reveals that Nikola has discovered all of the facts necessary to extend a human being's life. He has studied science and magic secrets of Tibetan monks. He explains: "It has been a long and tedious search, but such labour only makes success the sweeter. The machinery is now prepared; all that remains is to fit the various parts together. In six months' time, if all goes well, I will have a man walking upon this earth...

The Dr. Nikola novel sets in Venice, Italy. Nikola tells the story of his sad life, demonstrates his mystic ability to enable people to experience themselves in another place and time, transforms a man into being a beast, and departs from his palace in Venice which has a bloody history, but he remains in the minds of those who met him.

This is the first in Boothby's series of Dr. Nikola novels. It opens with the manager of a fine London restaurant preparing for a dinner reserved in an odd letter originating from Brazil 3 months prior, for 4 persons in a private room, where 3 guests will arrive showing cards with a red dot. One will be from China, one from South Africa, one from England, plus the host, Dr Nikola, who is of unknown nationality but is later revealed to travel the world widely. The letter specifies certain preparations, such as no electric lighting but rather candles with red shades, a small jug of fresh milk, and a porcelain saucer.

In this second of Boothby's Dr. Nikola novels, adventurer Wilfred Bruce meets Dr. Nokola, who wants to hire Bruce to help him penetrate a secluded Chinese monastic society to obtain the occult secret for immortality. Dr. Nikola demonstrates to Bruce that he and his black cat have magical powers. He learned of the Chinese society from a disgraced Oxford don who spent many years in China and from an old Buddhist priest.

A Bid for Fortune is the first in a series of novels about Doctor Nikola, an occultist anti-hero seeking immortality and world domination. "Abounds in dramatic situations, and is bright in dialogue, graphic in description, and subtle in character analysis." Australian novelist and writer, noted for sensational fiction in variety magazines around the end of the nineteenth century. He is best known for such works as the Dr Nikola series, about an occultist criminal mastermind who is a Victorian forerunner to Fu Manchu, and Pharos, the Egyptian, a tale of Gothic Egypt, mummies' curses and supernatural revenge.