Featured Treasure: Discobol by Rev. Compton Reade (1907, First Edition)

Welcome to Literary Treasures! For my debut blog post, I couldn’t resist featuring one of the rarest, and most captivating, titles in my collection:

📖 Discobol, Rev. Compton Reade (1907, Hardback)

A historical novel woven around love, faith, and persecution, Discobol takes readers back to the dramatic world of early Christianity under the brutal reign of Emperor Caligula in Ancient Rome. This beautifully cloth-bound volume stands out not only for its story but as a true collectors’ rarity. At the time of listing, it appears that I can’t find another copy, either for sale or in digital archives.

Who Was Rev. Compton Reade?

Rev. Compton Reade (1834–1909) was a British clergyman and prolific author, perhaps best known for his works of genealogy, historical novels, and poetry. His writing often reflected a fascination with Tudor and Elizabethan history, rich ground for romantic and historical fiction.

But there’s more: he was believed to be the nephew to the better-known Victorian novelist Charles Reade (1814–1884), author of The Cloister and the Hearth, one of the great historical novels of the 19th century. Clearly, storytelling ran deep in the Reade bloodline, whether in grand Victorian epics or these far rarer, more intimate volumes like Discobol.

While Charles Reade enjoyed literary fame in his lifetime, poor Compton seems to have quietly laboured on, producing works like:

• Broken Threads (1897)

• The After Taste (1900)

• The House of Cornewall (1908)

• and several detailed family histories, including A Record of the Redes of Barton Court (1899)

Discobol, however, remains something of a bibliographic ghost - few references exist, and almost no copies have surfaced for collectors or historians.

Why This Copy Is Special

• First Edition (1907) printed by Robert Scott in London and Morrison & Gibb in Edinburgh, both prominent names in the publishing and printing world of their time.

• Pictorial cloth binding - a visual delight and evocative of the era’s design sensibilities.

• Extremely scarce - I’ve been through online catalogues and libraries and found no duplicates or digitised versions.

• Discobol appears to be a novel lost to time, granting it added historical and bibliographic significance.

  
  

A Dash of Humour

Imagine Compton, in a fit of modesty, tucking this manuscript away amid his more florid Elizabethan tales, only for it to emerge decades later as the belle of the antiquarian ball! It’s like discovering your favorite loaf of exotic artisan bread tucked in the back of your cupboard, but one you didn’t even remember baking. 

Why Discobol Deserves a Home

To own this book is to cradle a fragment of literary history, a snapshot of a novel that could have slipped into oblivion. Whether you're drawn to its poetic faith narrative, its rare physical form, or its quiet obscurity, Discobol is a true Literary Treasure.

Explore Our Collection

Curious to see more? Discobol is currently available in our online shop, complete with high-resolution images and condition details. Dive into our collection and discover other rare accompaniments of history, faith, and storytelling.

Thank you for reading, and for supporting the revival of forgotten stories. Here's to many more literary treasures and the tales they carry.

Warmly, Marie, Founder of Literary Treasures