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Portrait of Jennie -
Robert Nathan
1940 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
The basis for the 1948 William Dieterle film starring Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones, which won academy award for special effects, and was nominated for Best Cinematography.
The supernatural love story of a depression era artist in New York and a young girl slipping through time’, a modern Dorian Gray...
‘So brilliant is Nathan's execution that one is entirely lost in the tender love story of two immortally designed for each other, one a spirit out of the past seeking to catch up with the present, the other a man rooted in the present and caught in an urgency to accept the gift of the past . . . Portrait of Jennie will perhaps most vividly recall Balderston's Berkeley Square, for, like that, it is a love story that transcends the boundaries of time. It is told with tenderness and with beauty. Its mood lingers in the heart, and its planes challenge the mind.’ – New York Times.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1940 - Alfred A. Knopf, New York - First Edition
The basis for the 1948 William Dieterle film starring Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones, which won academy award for special effects, and was nominated for Best Cinematography.The supernatural love story of a depression era artist in New York and a young girl slipping through time’, a modern Dorian Gray...
‘So brilliant is Nathan's execution that one is entirely lost in the tender love story of two immortally designed for each other, one a spirit out of the past seeking to catch up with the present, the other a man rooted in the present and caught in an urgency to accept the gift of the past . . . Portrait of Jennie will perhaps most vividly recall Balderston's Berkeley Square, for, like that, it is a love story that transcends the boundaries of time. It is told with tenderness and with beauty. Its mood lingers in the heart, and its planes challenge the mind.’ – New York Times.
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Price HK$ 3,000
Wise Blood -
Flannery O'Connor
1952 - Harcourt, New York - First Edition
‘Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it.’
A superb copy, and scarce in such a bright dust jacket without the usual toning, fading or chipping to the spine.
Considered a cornerstone of the southern-gothic genre, this lovely copy of O’Connor’s first book delves into themes of depression, sin, and redemption, while retaining a biting sense of humour. Listed among the Guardian’s list of the 100 greatest novels of all time, this is a powerful exploration of character and motivation, reminiscent in style to other masters such as Kafka, Waugh, and Faulkner.
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Price HK$ 45,000
1952 - Harcourt, New York - First Edition
‘Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it.’A superb copy, and scarce in such a bright dust jacket without the usual toning, fading or chipping to the spine.
Considered a cornerstone of the southern-gothic genre, this lovely copy of O’Connor’s first book delves into themes of depression, sin, and redemption, while retaining a biting sense of humour. Listed among the Guardian’s list of the 100 greatest novels of all time, this is a powerful exploration of character and motivation, reminiscent in style to other masters such as Kafka, Waugh, and Faulkner.
More details
Price HK$ 45,000
After Claude -
Iris Owens
1973 - Farrar, New York - First Edition
Rare in first edition, even more so in dust jacket, and here you have a fine and signed first edition.
Cult classic and the first of only two books published under the author’s own name. The rest of her career was spent writing pornography as ‘Harriet Daimler’ for the Olympia Press in Paris.
‘After Claude’ features Harriet one of the first anti-heroines, it is ‘a foulmouthed comic tour de force, still capable of offending the offendable and casting a blue-streaked spell of hilarity over everyone else.’ [Gerald Howard]
There is too much written about Iris Owens and ‘After Claude’ to do either justice in this short note, below are a few short reviews, and extracts from articles.
‘If there’s one thing on this earth that irritates me, it’s when a dumpy, frigid, former nymphomaniac assumes that my tongue is hanging out, thirsting for marital bliss.’
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Price HK$ 8,000
1973 - Farrar, New York - First Edition
Rare in first edition, even more so in dust jacket, and here you have a fine and signed first edition.Cult classic and the first of only two books published under the author’s own name. The rest of her career was spent writing pornography as ‘Harriet Daimler’ for the Olympia Press in Paris.
‘After Claude’ features Harriet one of the first anti-heroines, it is ‘a foulmouthed comic tour de force, still capable of offending the offendable and casting a blue-streaked spell of hilarity over everyone else.’ [Gerald Howard]
There is too much written about Iris Owens and ‘After Claude’ to do either justice in this short note, below are a few short reviews, and extracts from articles.
‘If there’s one thing on this earth that irritates me, it’s when a dumpy, frigid, former nymphomaniac assumes that my tongue is hanging out, thirsting for marital bliss.’
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Price HK$ 8,000
A Morbid Taste for Bones. A Mediaeval Whodunnit -
Ellis Peters (Pseud. Edith Pargeter)
1977 - MacMillan London Limited, London - First Edition
A fine and thus scarce true first edition of the first Brother Cadfael mystery, set in twelfth-century Britain. After leaving his home in Trefriw, Gwynedd, apprenticing with an English wool merchant and participating in the First Crusade and other adventures, Cadfael ap Meilyr ap Dafydd returned to England and joins a Benedictine monastery in Shrewsbury as gardener, herbalist and occasional translator.
Yes, he is Welsh, and yes this is a fine copy, with none of the toning to the spine usually encountered.
‘Cadfael must surely become a cult figure of crime fiction.’ – Financial Times, London.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1977 - MacMillan London Limited, London - First Edition
A fine and thus scarce true first edition of the first Brother Cadfael mystery, set in twelfth-century Britain. After leaving his home in Trefriw, Gwynedd, apprenticing with an English wool merchant and participating in the First Crusade and other adventures, Cadfael ap Meilyr ap Dafydd returned to England and joins a Benedictine monastery in Shrewsbury as gardener, herbalist and occasional translator. Yes, he is Welsh, and yes this is a fine copy, with none of the toning to the spine usually encountered.
‘Cadfael must surely become a cult figure of crime fiction.’ – Financial Times, London.
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Price HK$ 6,000
The Oldest Inhabitant. A Comedy -
Eden Phillpotts
1934 - The Macmillan Company, New York - First American Edition
A fine first edition in fine dust jacket.
A plot based in a small Devonshire village, and centred around one of it’s oldest residents, a sly old scamp and about whom his oldest friend says “a artfully and more utterly devious and downy old man than he is don’t draw breath”...
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Price HK$ 1,800
1934 - The Macmillan Company, New York - First American Edition
A fine first edition in fine dust jacket.A plot based in a small Devonshire village, and centred around one of it’s oldest residents, a sly old scamp and about whom his oldest friend says “a artfully and more utterly devious and downy old man than he is don’t draw breath”...
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Price HK$ 1,800
Johnson Over Jordan - The Play. And All About It (An Essay) -
J. B. Priestley
1939 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
‘J.B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century. And it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius’ – Dame Judi Dench
A smartly bound copy of J.B. Priestley’s ‘adventure in theatre’, Johnson Over Jordan – the story of ‘everyman’ Robert Johnson who attempts to make sense of a life half lived – was the play he considered his finest and most ambitious achievement. Also features an essay by Priestly on the writing of the play and its origins, and the critical reception of the stage production.
Illustrated with 8 full page black and white photographic plates of the original 1939 stage production, which starred Ralph Richardson and featured a musical score by Benjamin Britten.
With a black and white photographic portrait of the playwright tipped in to front endpaper and the front panel of the original dust jacket laid in.
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Price HK$ 1,500
1939 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
‘J.B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century. And it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius’ – Dame Judi DenchA smartly bound copy of J.B. Priestley’s ‘adventure in theatre’, Johnson Over Jordan – the story of ‘everyman’ Robert Johnson who attempts to make sense of a life half lived – was the play he considered his finest and most ambitious achievement. Also features an essay by Priestly on the writing of the play and its origins, and the critical reception of the stage production.
Illustrated with 8 full page black and white photographic plates of the original 1939 stage production, which starred Ralph Richardson and featured a musical score by Benjamin Britten.
With a black and white photographic portrait of the playwright tipped in to front endpaper and the front panel of the original dust jacket laid in.
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Price HK$ 1,500
Harry Potter Series, Complete Deluxe Set - 7 volumes -
J. K. Rowling
1999-2007 - Bloomsbury, London - All First Deluxe Editions, First Printing, in Deluxe Bindings
Harry Potter's award-winning wizarding adventures have had an unrivalled impact in popular culture today; indeed, some experts have referred to adults between the ages of roughly 20-30 years old as 'the Harry Potter generation'.
Presented here is a complete and fine and stunning seven volume set of first printings of the deluxe editions, superior to the trade editions, being larger, with quality cloth and gilt lettered covers, the artwork inlaid to the upper panels, silk bookmarks, and all edges finished in gilt.
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Price HK$ 35,000
1999-2007 - Bloomsbury, London - All First Deluxe Editions, First Printing, in Deluxe Bindings
Harry Potter's award-winning wizarding adventures have had an unrivalled impact in popular culture today; indeed, some experts have referred to adults between the ages of roughly 20-30 years old as 'the Harry Potter generation'.Presented here is a complete and fine and stunning seven volume set of first printings of the deluxe editions, superior to the trade editions, being larger, with quality cloth and gilt lettered covers, the artwork inlaid to the upper panels, silk bookmarks, and all edges finished in gilt.
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Price HK$ 35,000
Franny and Zooey -
J.D. Salinger
1961 - Little, Boston - First Edition
A fine first edition of Salinger’s third book. Two stories about the Glass family, which originally appeared in the New Yorker, following on from ‘Raise High the Roof Beam’ [1959].
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Price HK$ 6,000
1961 - Little, Boston - First Edition
A fine first edition of Salinger’s third book. Two stories about the Glass family, which originally appeared in the New Yorker, following on from ‘Raise High the Roof Beam’ [1959].
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Price HK$ 6,000