Bluebeard

HARDBACK, ?UNCOMMON,? SHIPPED FROM THE UK* Edn: 1st.* Imp: 1st.* Date of Publication: 1988* Publisher: Jonathan Cape.* Binding and cover condition: Blue cloth, gilt title to spine. Very slight bumps, no rubs, minimal shelf wear to upper & lower edges and to head and tail of spine. A few light marks. VG+* Jacket condition: Colour illustrated dust wrapper showing a padlock with dabs of paint on it, pale blue and white titles to spine and face. NOT PRICE CLIPPED, showing a shelf price of £10.95. Minor shelf wear to top edges and to head & tail of spine. Now in clear protective wrapper. VG* Contents condition: PRIVATE COPY NOT EX-LIBRARY. Clean, crisp and tight with no reading wear, no marks to text, some slight paper colouration throughout. Slight marks to end-papers & all edges. Top edge aged and dusty, otherwise no visible faults. VG.* Illustrations: None.* Pages: 300 pp. text.* Description: Bluebeard, is an autobiography in novel form. It is told as a first person narrative and describes the late years of fictional Abstract Expressionist painter Rabo Karabekian, who first appeared as a minor character in Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. He meets Circe Berman on his own private beach and she, as it were, takes charge of him and invades his life and home. The only secret enclave he retains is his ?Potato Barn? which is the home of his studio and holds his "secret". It has no windows, and he has gone to the trouble of nailing one end shut and immobilizing the other with six padlocks. The mystery of the potato barn has enticed collectors to make outrageous offers and to raise suspicions of stolen masterpieces. With help from Berman, Karabekian comes to a realization in his life, that he was merely afraid of people, and opens the painting in the potato barn to the public.* A VG text copy of the 1st/1st with some age & minor faults in a VG protected dust jacket.*