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In the Blue Pike — cover
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Aeneas Press edition Victorian

In the Blue Pike

by Georg Ebers 1837–1898

The book, and the century it came out of.

Germany, 1500: a roadside inn called the Blue Pike, a company of travellers snowed in together — a knight, a monk, a player, a Jewish physician — and one night of talk in which the coming century is argued out. Ebers found the medical papyrus that bears his name and dug in Egypt for years; here he leaves Egypt for the eve of the Reformation, and the inn is a cross-section of a world about to break. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Monogrammist, Elder and Massijs among them.

“May a thunderbolt strike you!” The imprecation suited the rough fellow who uttered it.
The first sentence of In the Blue Pike
A note on this edition

In the Blue Pike, by Georg Ebers, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 120 pages
Reading time
about 2 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486014147
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

A public house, Brunswick Monogrammist
A public house Brunswick Monogrammist 1540
Merry company with unequal couple, Jan Matsys
Merry company with unequal couple Jan Matsys 1557
Portrait of a weeping peasant, Pieter Balten
Portrait of a weeping peasant Pieter Balten 1550
The Merchant and his Wife, Marinus van Reymerswaele
The Merchant and his Wife Marinus van Reymerswaele 1540
The Gloomy Day, Pieter Brueghel the Elder
The Gloomy Day Pieter Brueghel the Elder 1565
Мountain landscape, Joos de Momper the Younger
Мountain landscape Joos de Momper the Younger 1550
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of In the Blue Pike as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of In the Blue Pike as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

In the Blue Pike, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Adventure & the Sea shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486014147, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of In the Blue Pike?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Georg Ebers's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 120 pages, which is roughly about 2 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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In the Blue Pike
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