Literature
Crime & Detective
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Spies Espionage James Bond 007
Austen Bronte
Conrad & Kipling
Dickens & Shakespeare
Greene & Orwell
Hemingway & Steinbeck
Maugham & Waugh
Wodehouse
Antiquarian
Modern
American
Poetry
Death in the Afternoon -
Ernest Hemingway
1932 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - First Edition
A fine copy in bright delicate very good dust jacket. With a beautiful coloured frontispiece ‘The Bullfighter’ by Juan Gris, and numerous black and white photographs throughout.
‘Still considered one of the best books ever written about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon reflects Hemingway's belief that bullfighting was more than mere sport. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual, and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick." Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes an art, a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great grace and cunning’ [from a later edition]
More details
Price HK$ 20,000
1932 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - First Edition
A fine copy in bright delicate very good dust jacket. With a beautiful coloured frontispiece ‘The Bullfighter’ by Juan Gris, and numerous black and white photographs throughout.‘Still considered one of the best books ever written about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon reflects Hemingway's belief that bullfighting was more than mere sport. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual, and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick." Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes an art, a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great grace and cunning’ [from a later edition]
More details
Price HK$ 20,000
Sweet Thursday -
John Steinbeck
1954 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition in exceptional example of the delicate dust jacket which is usually prone to heavy toning creases and chips.
‘In Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that are just naturally bad. Returning to the scene of Cannery Row—the weedy lots and junk heaps and flophouses of Monterey, John Steinbeck once more brings to life the denizens of a netherworld of laughter and tears—from Doc, based on Steinbeck’s lifelong friend Ed Ricketts, to Fauna, new headmistress of the local brothel, to Hazel, a bum whose mother must have wanted a daughter.’
More details
Price HK$ 5,800
1954 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition in exceptional example of the delicate dust jacket which is usually prone to heavy toning creases and chips.‘In Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that are just naturally bad. Returning to the scene of Cannery Row—the weedy lots and junk heaps and flophouses of Monterey, John Steinbeck once more brings to life the denizens of a netherworld of laughter and tears—from Doc, based on Steinbeck’s lifelong friend Ed Ricketts, to Fauna, new headmistress of the local brothel, to Hazel, a bum whose mother must have wanted a daughter.’
More details
Price HK$ 5,800
East of Eden -
John Steinbeck
1952 - The Viking Press, New York - First Trade Edition, First Issue
Fine first edition of what Steinbeck considered ‘to be his magnum opus, the crowning achievement of his life's work’, housed in a custom felt-lined dark blue and green cloth clamshell box, the upper panel mimicking the undulations of the fields illustration on the dust jacket.
‘The subject is the only one man has ever used as his theme - the existence, the balance, the battle, and the victory in the permanent war between wisdom and ignorance, light and darkness - good and evil.’
‘I have written each book as an exercise, as practice for the one to come. And this is the one to come. There is nothing beyond this book-nothing follows it. It must contain all in the world I know and it must have everything in it of which I am capable’.
- John Steinbeck writing to his editor and publisher Pat Covici, The East of Eden Letters.
More details
Price HK$ 24,000
1952 - The Viking Press, New York - First Trade Edition, First Issue
Fine first edition of what Steinbeck considered ‘to be his magnum opus, the crowning achievement of his life's work’, housed in a custom felt-lined dark blue and green cloth clamshell box, the upper panel mimicking the undulations of the fields illustration on the dust jacket.‘The subject is the only one man has ever used as his theme - the existence, the balance, the battle, and the victory in the permanent war between wisdom and ignorance, light and darkness - good and evil.’
‘I have written each book as an exercise, as practice for the one to come. And this is the one to come. There is nothing beyond this book-nothing follows it. It must contain all in the world I know and it must have everything in it of which I am capable’.
- John Steinbeck writing to his editor and publisher Pat Covici, The East of Eden Letters.
More details
Price HK$ 24,000