First rewritten edition
COLLINS, Wilkie. Hide And Seek; or, The Mystery of Mary Grice. London; Sampson Low, Son & Co. 1861

8vo.; sometime soberly bound in half tan calf over pretty pinkish marbled boards, spine with 5 raised bands double-ruled in gilt with red leather lettering label, plain edges; pp. [viii] + 356 + [iv]; with engraved frontispiece; spine a little faded with brown mark to lower compartment; internally clean with occasional toning to stock and a small tanned mark to top edge of title-page at inner gutter.

First one-volume edition, also known as the “New Edition”, issued with substantial textual revisions.  Here the story is shortened and has an altered ending (Wolff 1357a).  Originally published as Collins’ third novel by Richard Bentley in the form of a triple-decker in 1854, “Hide And Seek” represents the author’s first foray into mystery-solving plots, a venture which would reach its apogée in the author’s masterpiece “The Woman in White” published in 1860.

The mystery surrounds a beautiful deaf-mute girl named “Madonna” who is rescued from a circus, and the search to discover her real identity and reveal her connection to an enigmatic stranger.