Quarto. [44]p. Printed on rectos only. With six tipped-in colour illustrations by Arthur Severn. Original publisher's decorated red cloth, gilt title set within elaborate border of bat-winged motor car wheels, red pictorial dustwrapper. A trifle rubbed, dustwrapper lightly marked and creased, chipped at edges, spine panel dulled, numerous repairs (in paper and tape) to verso.

The first edition, in the rarely seen dustwrapper, of novelist Mary Mackary's [pseud. Marie Corelli] (1855- 1924) impassioned indictment of the motor car, produced in collaboration with artist Arthur Severn, with whom she formed an unrequited romantic attachment. A unique publication, the leaves having been impregnated with a simulated smell of oil and the margins smoke darkened to emulate the pollution of automobiles.