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Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea; Being the Alexandria Quartet. -
Lawrence Durrell
1957 - Faber and Faber, London - First Editions
A fine set in first issue dust jackets in superior condition.
'One of the most important works of our time.' - New York Times Book Review.
The Alexandria Quartet is Durrell’s most succesfull and admired work, at heart a sensuous and brilliant evocation of wartime Egypt.
In this world of corrupt glamour, L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself to the end of his affair with the dark, passionate Justine Hosnani - setting alight a beguiling exploration of sexual and political intrigue that Durrell himself described as 'an investigation of modern love'.
'A formidable, glittering achievement.' - Times Literary Supplement.
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Price HK$ 30,000
1957 - Faber and Faber, London - First Editions
A fine set in first issue dust jackets in superior condition.'One of the most important works of our time.' - New York Times Book Review.
The Alexandria Quartet is Durrell’s most succesfull and admired work, at heart a sensuous and brilliant evocation of wartime Egypt.
In this world of corrupt glamour, L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself to the end of his affair with the dark, passionate Justine Hosnani - setting alight a beguiling exploration of sexual and political intrigue that Durrell himself described as 'an investigation of modern love'.
'A formidable, glittering achievement.' - Times Literary Supplement.
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Price HK$ 30,000
The Dick Gibson Show - Signed -
Stanley Elkin
1971 - Random House, New York - First Edition
First edition signed by Elkin. A fine copy in fine and wonderfully illustrated dust jacket designed by Robert Korn.
National Book Award finalist: Look who's on the "Dick Gibson Radio Show": Arnold the Memory Expert ("I've memorized the entire West Coast shoreline - except for cloud cover and fog banks"). Bernie Perk, the burning pharmacist. Henry Harper, the nine-year old orphan millionaire, terrified of being adopted. The woman whose life revolves around pierced lobes. An evil hypnotist. Swindlers. Con-men. And Dick Gibson himself. Anticipating talk radio and its crazed hosts, Stanley Elkin creates a brilliant comic world held together by American manias and maniacs in all their forms, and a character who perfectly understands what Americans want and gives it to them.
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Price HK$ 2,500
1971 - Random House, New York - First Edition
First edition signed by Elkin. A fine copy in fine and wonderfully illustrated dust jacket designed by Robert Korn.National Book Award finalist: Look who's on the "Dick Gibson Radio Show": Arnold the Memory Expert ("I've memorized the entire West Coast shoreline - except for cloud cover and fog banks"). Bernie Perk, the burning pharmacist. Henry Harper, the nine-year old orphan millionaire, terrified of being adopted. The woman whose life revolves around pierced lobes. An evil hypnotist. Swindlers. Con-men. And Dick Gibson himself. Anticipating talk radio and its crazed hosts, Stanley Elkin creates a brilliant comic world held together by American manias and maniacs in all their forms, and a character who perfectly understands what Americans want and gives it to them.
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Price HK$ 2,500
The Great Gatsby -
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1925 - Charles Scribner&rsquo, New York - First Edition, First Issue
‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’
A particularly fine and thus rare example of the first edition, with strong bright gilt to the spine lettering, no rubbing or wear, deep green cloth, clean interior without inscriptions or markings.
A landmark of 20th century fiction, and the epitome of the Jazz Age in American literature, which incredibly, sold very little during Fitzgerald’s lifetime.
‘I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited – they went there.’
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Price HK$ 80,000
1925 - Charles Scribner&rsquo, New York - First Edition, First Issue
‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’A particularly fine and thus rare example of the first edition, with strong bright gilt to the spine lettering, no rubbing or wear, deep green cloth, clean interior without inscriptions or markings.
A landmark of 20th century fiction, and the epitome of the Jazz Age in American literature, which incredibly, sold very little during Fitzgerald’s lifetime.
‘I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited – they went there.’
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Price HK$ 80,000
The Cubical City -
Janet Flanner (Gen
1926 - G.P. Putnam&rsquo, New York &ndash - First Edition
First edition of the author’s only novel a bright sharp example in the rare dust jacket.
An extraordinary—and memorable—glimpse of the young artist in New York during the Jazz Age, and ‘considered by literary scholars to be one of the first examples of modernist lesbian literature’.
‘From the 1920s to the 1970s, Janet Flanner kept Americans abreast of the goings-on in Paris with a biweekly New Yorker column written under the name Genêt. But before she became one of the country’s most famous expats, she lived among the artists and writers of the Algonquin Round Table. Flanner shares a vivid depiction of the New York she knew in this tale of a young woman’s self-discovery.
Having left Ohio in search of liberation, Delia Poole struggles to find her place in the big city. After getting work as a costume designer for musical revues, she and her dear friend Nancy are finally finding happiness on their own terms. But nothing is simple. From her adoring suitor, Paul, to her widowed mother’s decision to move to New York, Delia must grapple with expectations, responsibilities, and her own uncertainty.
The Cubical City is Janet Flanner’s only published novel. Though homosexuality is never overtly expressed, it is considered by literary scholars to be one of the first examples of modernist lesbian literature’ [Open Road Media]
+++
More details
Price HK$ 17,000
1926 - G.P. Putnam&rsquo, New York &ndash - First Edition
First edition of the author’s only novel a bright sharp example in the rare dust jacket.An extraordinary—and memorable—glimpse of the young artist in New York during the Jazz Age, and ‘considered by literary scholars to be one of the first examples of modernist lesbian literature’.
‘From the 1920s to the 1970s, Janet Flanner kept Americans abreast of the goings-on in Paris with a biweekly New Yorker column written under the name Genêt. But before she became one of the country’s most famous expats, she lived among the artists and writers of the Algonquin Round Table. Flanner shares a vivid depiction of the New York she knew in this tale of a young woman’s self-discovery.
Having left Ohio in search of liberation, Delia Poole struggles to find her place in the big city. After getting work as a costume designer for musical revues, she and her dear friend Nancy are finally finding happiness on their own terms. But nothing is simple. From her adoring suitor, Paul, to her widowed mother’s decision to move to New York, Delia must grapple with expectations, responsibilities, and her own uncertainty.
The Cubical City is Janet Flanner’s only published novel. Though homosexuality is never overtly expressed, it is considered by literary scholars to be one of the first examples of modernist lesbian literature’ [Open Road Media]
+++
More details
Price HK$ 17,000
Flying Colours. Including A Ship Of The Line -
C. S. Forester
1938 - Michael Joseph Ltd. in conjunction with The Book Society Ltd., London - First Edition
One finely bound volume containing two classic Hornblower novels, in which Captain Horatio Hornblower commands his first ship of the line, HMS Sutherland. A Ship Of The Line and Flying Colours, are the second and third books in the Horatio Hornblower series. This is the first publication of Flying Colours which was released shortly afterwards as a stand alone title, making this the true first edition.
A Ship of the Line - May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Horatio Hornblower is newly in command of his first ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland, which he deems ‘the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List’. Moreover, she is 250 men short of a full crew, so Hornblower must enlist and train ‘poachers, bigamists, sheepstealers’, and other landlubbers. By the time the Sutherland reaches the blockaded Catalonian coast of Spain, the crew is capable of staging five astonishing solo raids against the French. But the grisly prospect of defeat and capture looms for both captain and crew as the Sutherland single-handedly takes on four French ships.
Flying Colours - Forced to surrender the Sutherland after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner in a French fortress. Within days he and his first lieutenant, Bush, who was crippled in the last fight, are to be taken to Paris to be tried on trumped-up charges of violating the laws of war, and most probably executed as part of Napoleon's attempt to rally the war-weary empire behind him. Even if Hornblower escapes this fate and somehow finds his way back to England, he will face court-martial for his surrender of a British ship. As fears for his life and his reputation compete in his mind with worries about his pregnant wife and his possibly widowed lover, the indomitable captain impatiently awaits the chance to make his next move.
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Price HK$ 5,000
1938 - Michael Joseph Ltd. in conjunction with The Book Society Ltd., London - First Edition
One finely bound volume containing two classic Hornblower novels, in which Captain Horatio Hornblower commands his first ship of the line, HMS Sutherland. A Ship Of The Line and Flying Colours, are the second and third books in the Horatio Hornblower series. This is the first publication of Flying Colours which was released shortly afterwards as a stand alone title, making this the true first edition.A Ship of the Line - May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Horatio Hornblower is newly in command of his first ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland, which he deems ‘the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List’. Moreover, she is 250 men short of a full crew, so Hornblower must enlist and train ‘poachers, bigamists, sheepstealers’, and other landlubbers. By the time the Sutherland reaches the blockaded Catalonian coast of Spain, the crew is capable of staging five astonishing solo raids against the French. But the grisly prospect of defeat and capture looms for both captain and crew as the Sutherland single-handedly takes on four French ships.
Flying Colours - Forced to surrender the Sutherland after a long and bloody battle, Captain Horatio Hornblower now bides his time as a prisoner in a French fortress. Within days he and his first lieutenant, Bush, who was crippled in the last fight, are to be taken to Paris to be tried on trumped-up charges of violating the laws of war, and most probably executed as part of Napoleon's attempt to rally the war-weary empire behind him. Even if Hornblower escapes this fate and somehow finds his way back to England, he will face court-martial for his surrender of a British ship. As fears for his life and his reputation compete in his mind with worries about his pregnant wife and his possibly widowed lover, the indomitable captain impatiently awaits the chance to make his next move.
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Price HK$ 5,000
JR - Signed -
William Gaddis
1975 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
First edition, signed.
‘At the center of J R is J R Vansant, a very average sixth grader from Long Island with torn sneakers, a runny nose, and a juvenile fascination with junk-mail get-rich-quick offers. Responding to one, he sees a small return; soon, he is running a paper empire out of a phone booth in the school hallway. Everyone from the school staff to the municipal government to the squabbling heirs of a player-piano company to the titans of Wall Street and the politicians in Washington will be caught up in the endlessly ballooning bubble of the J R Family of Companies.
Winner of the National Book Award in 1976, J R is an appallingly funny and all-too-prophetic depiction of America’s romance with finance. It is also a book about suburban development and urban decay, divorce proceedings and disputed wills, the crumbling facade of Western civilization and the impossible demands of love and art, with characters ranging from the earnest young composer Edward Bast to the berserk publicist Davidoff. Told almost entirely through dialogue, William Gaddis’s novel is both a literary tour de force and an unsurpassed reckoning with the way we live now.’ – New York Review of Books.
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Price HK$ 8,000
1975 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
First edition, signed.‘At the center of J R is J R Vansant, a very average sixth grader from Long Island with torn sneakers, a runny nose, and a juvenile fascination with junk-mail get-rich-quick offers. Responding to one, he sees a small return; soon, he is running a paper empire out of a phone booth in the school hallway. Everyone from the school staff to the municipal government to the squabbling heirs of a player-piano company to the titans of Wall Street and the politicians in Washington will be caught up in the endlessly ballooning bubble of the J R Family of Companies.
Winner of the National Book Award in 1976, J R is an appallingly funny and all-too-prophetic depiction of America’s romance with finance. It is also a book about suburban development and urban decay, divorce proceedings and disputed wills, the crumbling facade of Western civilization and the impossible demands of love and art, with characters ranging from the earnest young composer Edward Bast to the berserk publicist Davidoff. Told almost entirely through dialogue, William Gaddis’s novel is both a literary tour de force and an unsurpassed reckoning with the way we live now.’ – New York Review of Books.
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Price HK$ 8,000
Neuromancer - Signed -
William Gibson
1984 - Ace Science Fiction Books, New York - First Edition
A signed first edition, first printing of the masterpiece that launched the cyberpunk generation, inspired the Hollywood blockbuster franchise The Matrix, heralded the coming of the internet, and the only novel to win the triple-crown of Science Fiction awards: 1984 Nebula Award for Best Novel; the 1985 Hugo Award for Best Novel; and the 1985 Philip K. Dick Award for Best Novel.
Housed in a bespoke clamshell case with morocco title label to spine.
A paperback original, later published the same year in hard back by Victor Gollancz in London. Due to the cheapness of production, and extended usage these Ace paperback first editions received they are becoming increasingly scarce in decent condition.
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Price HK$ 18,000
1984 - Ace Science Fiction Books, New York - First Edition
A signed first edition, first printing of the masterpiece that launched the cyberpunk generation, inspired the Hollywood blockbuster franchise The Matrix, heralded the coming of the internet, and the only novel to win the triple-crown of Science Fiction awards: 1984 Nebula Award for Best Novel; the 1985 Hugo Award for Best Novel; and the 1985 Philip K. Dick Award for Best Novel.Housed in a bespoke clamshell case with morocco title label to spine.
A paperback original, later published the same year in hard back by Victor Gollancz in London. Due to the cheapness of production, and extended usage these Ace paperback first editions received they are becoming increasingly scarce in decent condition.
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Price HK$ 18,000
Journey Without Maps -
Graham Greene
1936 - William Heinemann Ltd., London - First Edition
A near fine first edition of this most elusive title, Graham Greene’s first travel book, illustrated with 34 black and white photographs taken by him. Listed in National Geographic's 100 Greatest Adventure books.
Shortly after Greene's first child was born in December 1933 he had an impulse to explore Liberia, and over a glass of champagne asked his twenty-three year old cousin to accompany him. The result, according to Norman Sherry, was "one of the best travel books of our time..." (The Life of Graham Greene).
‘A doctor in Freetown, Sierra Leone, P.D. Oakley, sued the publisher, Heinemann, after the book's publication, saying Greene's depiction of a character in the book, called Pa Oakley, also a doctor, was libellous. Heinemann withdrew the book from circulation and pulped the remaining copies’. It took 10 years for a second edition to be printed.’
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Price HK$ 15,000
1936 - William Heinemann Ltd., London - First Edition
A near fine first edition of this most elusive title, Graham Greene’s first travel book, illustrated with 34 black and white photographs taken by him. Listed in National Geographic's 100 Greatest Adventure books.Shortly after Greene's first child was born in December 1933 he had an impulse to explore Liberia, and over a glass of champagne asked his twenty-three year old cousin to accompany him. The result, according to Norman Sherry, was "one of the best travel books of our time..." (The Life of Graham Greene).
‘A doctor in Freetown, Sierra Leone, P.D. Oakley, sued the publisher, Heinemann, after the book's publication, saying Greene's depiction of a character in the book, called Pa Oakley, also a doctor, was libellous. Heinemann withdrew the book from circulation and pulped the remaining copies’. It took 10 years for a second edition to be printed.’
More details
Price HK$ 15,000