Results 17 - 24 of 32 results

The Karla Trilogy Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; Smiley s People - John le Carr

1974 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Editions
A finely bound first edition set of John le Carre’s acclaimed espionage trilogy – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People – featuring legendary master spy George Smiley pitted against his elusive Cold War rival, Karla.

As a secret service agent, Le Carre moved from MI5 to MI6, and was in Berlin when the wall was erected. His experiences inspired him to write a novel which became 'Call For The Dead'; 'When I first began writing, Ian Fleming was riding high and the picture of the spy was that of a character who could have affairs with women, drive a fast car, who used gadgetry and gimmickry to escape.' Le Carre's aim was to portray the intelligence world from a new view and he has earned a reputation for gritty, realistic, suspenseful spy novels based on a wide knowledge of international espionage or simply human behaviour. His famous recurring character, George Smiley, is an aging, diffident, shadow-like member of the British foreign service, and the antithesis of James Bond; this trilogy of Smiley books is the author's masterwork, a thrilling elegy for post-imperial Britain. 'Tinker Tailor...' was the basis for the Oscar-nominated 2011 film starring Gary Oldman.
 
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Price HK$ 20,000



The Karla Trilogy Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; Smiley s People - Signed - John le Carr

1974 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Editions
A signed first edition set of John le Carré’s acclaimed espionage trilogy – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People – featuring legendary master spy George Smiley pitted against his elusive Cold War rival, Karla.

In addition to Le Carré signing each book to the title page,
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy includes a signed photograph of Sir Alec Guinness who played the part of Smiley in the original BBC adaptation, considered ‘one of the greatest performances ever seen on the small screen’ by the Guardian newspaper in 2019. The Honourable Schoolboy, includes a card with a typed quote signed by Le Carré.

First edition, first issue of
The Honourable Schoolboy with maps of Hong Kong for endpapers, these where not included in the second issue.

As a secret service agent, Le Carré moved from MI5 to MI6, and was in Berlin when the wall was erected. His experiences inspired him to write a novel which became '
Call For The Dead'; 'When I first began writing, Ian Fleming was riding high and the picture of the spy was that of a character who could have affairs with women, drive a fast car, who used gadgetry and gimmickry to escape.' Le Carré’s aim was to portray the intelligence world from a new view and he has earned a reputation for gritty, realistic, suspenseful spy novels based on a wide knowledge of international espionage or simply human behaviour. His famous recurring character, George Smiley, is an ageing, diffident, shadow-like member of the British foreign service, and the antithesis of James Bond; this trilogy of Smiley books is the author's masterwork, a thrilling elegy for post-imperial Britain. 'Tinker Tailor...' was the basis for the Oscar-nominated 2011 film starring Gary Oldman.

‘Simply the world’s greatest fictional spymaster’
– Newsweek. 
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Price HK$ 51,000



The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer

1948 - Rinehart and Company, New York Toronto - First Edition
First edition of Mailer’s gritty masterpiece, penned at the age of 25 and based on his own experience of military service in the Philippines during World War Two. Scarce in such nice condition due to the notoriously delicate black dust jacket.

‘Virtually a Kinsey Report on the sexual behavior of the GI. Its style is an almost pure Army billingsgate that will offend many readers, although in no sense is it exaggerated: Mr. Mailer's soldiers are real persons, speaking the vernacular of human bitterness and agony. It gives off a skyglow that is quite faithful to the spectrum of battle, and exposes the blood, if not always the guts, of war.’ -
New York Times 1948 
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Price HK$ 8,500



The Natural - Bernard Malamud

1952 - Harcourt, New York - First Edition
First edition of Bernard Malamud’s first novel, widely considered as one of the greatest baseball narratives of all time, the basis for the acclaimed 1984 film of the same name directed by Barry Levinson, and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall and Kim Basinger.

‘This book established that we could have a serious adult baseball novel by playing with the parallels between mythical elements in the game and mythical elements in literature’. –
Chicago Tribune.

‘A brilliant and unusually fine novel.’ –
The New York Times. 
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Price HK$ 16,000



The Border Trilogy - All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain - Cormac McCarthy

1992 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Editions
McCarthy’s brilliant Border Trilogy in first edition.

The young men in these novels come of age on south-western ranches in the 1930s, while across the border Mexico beckons them with its desolate beauty and the cruel promise of a place where dreams are paid for in blood.

‘An American classic to stand with the finest literary achievements of the century.’ -
San Francisco Chronicle

In
All the Pretty Horses, young John Grady Cole, dispossessed by the sale of his family's Texas ranch, heads across the border in search of the cowboy life, finding a job breaking horses and a dangerously ill-fated romance. In The Crossing, 16-year-old Billy Parham captures a she-wolf that has been marauding his family's ranch and instead of killing it decides to take it on a perilous journey home to the mountains of Mexico. These drifters come together years later in Cities of the Plain, a magnificent tale of friendship and passion. McCarthy's haunting evocation of two young men poised on the edge of a world about to change forever serves as a darkly beautiful elegy for the American frontier. [Picador] 
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Price HK$ 8,000



Backgammon: Its History and Practice - George Frederick Pardon, Kenny Meadows (illustrator)

1844 - D. Bogue, London - First Edition
A rare and superior first edition of this wonderfully illustrated little work on Backgammon. Surprisingly for a game that may have originated around 2,500 BC this is one of the earliest English treatise to focus on the game.

Quite comprehensive, the cheeky ‘
Punch’ style vignettes enhancing the more humorous anecdotes and quotes. The final chapter ‘Definition of Technicalities’ is not as dull as it sounds, for example -

“Covering your man to make sure of him” – A procedure to prevent your man being hit in the game – to ensure it in a duel.

“Gammon.” – A thing that abounds in many huge, old, smoky chimneys in the country, and in many well-ventilated public apartments in town’.

“High Doublets” – Twinned sixes or cinqs – frequent and highly ridiculous in operas, when melodious ladies enact truculent warriors.’
 
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Price HK$ 8,000



The Compleat Gentleman - Henry Peacham, Thomas Blount

1661 - Printed by E. Tyler, London - Third impression "
A superior example of one of the most important of all English courtesy books, with additional copper-engraved title page, 85 woodcut illustrations and ornamental headpieces.

The work for which Peacham (1576?-1643) will always be remembered. It was written for William Howard, Lord Arundel's youngest son, a boy of eight, to whom it is dedicated. The lad had not been Peacham's pupil; but they had met at Norwich, while the boy was a pupil of the bishop there. The book was suggested to him by M. de Ligny of Artois, who called Peacham's attention to the defective equipment of English youths in the matter of accomplishments. It is an interesting endeavour to encourage young men to devote themselves at once to the arts and athletic exercises.

A valuable survey is incidentally given of contemporary English efforts in science, art, and literature. A second impression, ‘much inlarged,’ appeared in 1626, and again in 1627, with an attractive chapter on fishing among other additions. This third edition of 1661, contained additional notes on blazonry by Thomas Blount (1618-1679); from this volume Dr. Johnson drew all the heraldic definitions in his dictionary’ [DNB].
 
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Price HK$ 9,000



The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle - Beatrix Potter

1905 - F. Warne &, London - First Edition, First or Second Printing
A superior and thus rare example of the first edition, first or second printing (both being identical).

Once upon a time there was a little girl called Lucie, who lived at a farm called Little-town.

One of Beatrix Potter’s most successful characters, inspired by her pet hedgehog of the same name, and Kitty MacDonald a Scottish washerwoman.
 
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Price HK$ 15,000



 
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