From Simon to Simon

My friend and colleague, also called Simon, was clearing out his parents' house the other day and - knowing that I have a passing fondness for books - said he would keep an eye out for anything I might like... and very kindly gave me a couple of very lovely books.


This picture isn't very illuminating, I realise - it's a very beautiful 1922 edition of Love and Freindship [sic!] by Jane Austen. I already have a copy, of course, but not one this lovely. It had uncut pages, and... ooo, I just want to stroke it.


And the other was The Stolen White Elephant by Mark Twain. Amongst the many and various lackings of my literary knowledge, Twain looms large. He is one of my aunt's favourite authors (the aunt who set me off on all sorts of literary adventures, and whose taste overlaps with mine precisely because she helped form mine) but I've yet to read anything by him. Does anyone know this one? A lovely touch - it was presented to A.W. Bentley (my friend's Dad) in 1927 for Proficiency in English. So, the book is over 80 years old, and has had one careful owner! Now two...