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A Handful of Dust (Uniform Edition of Evelyn Waugh's novels)
by WAUGH, Evelyn
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Very Good+ in Very Good dust jacket
- Seller
-
Littleton, Colorado, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Chapman and Hall. Very Good+ in Very Good dust jacket. 1950. Hardcover. A third printing, 1950, of the second so-called "uniform" edition of the 1934 novel by Evelyn Waugh. The story is centered around the author's Tony Last character, an English country squire who loves his life on the family's historic property, and his wife Brenda who is thoroughly bored with country life. This work is at times both hilarious and serious, showing undercurrents of Waugh's turn toward Catholicism. With a frontis black & white drawing of the family home, Hetton Abbey, by J. M. D. Harvey. --- In full dark blue cloth-covered boards with gilt-stamped spine titling; blue topstain. Volume wrapped in simple yellow and cream dust jacket. --- A clean, tightly-bound, unmarked copy, though with a hint of age-toning to leaves and some loss of gilding to spine titling. Jacket with good-sized chip to head of spine, mild darkening to spine, else intact and wrapped in removable archival mylar protector.; 12mo - 7 to 7-1/2 in. tall; [10], 240 pages .
Synopsis
British writer Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust tells the story of Tony Last, a disillusioned and soon-to-be-divorced country squire, who travels of the jungle of Brazil — only to find himself the prisoner of an unhinged settler who forces him to continuously read aloud the works of Charles Dickens. A Handful of Dust is often grouped with Waugh’s satirical novels prior to World War II; however, because of its serious undertones, it can also been seen as a transitional work to his more substantial postwar fiction. The novel has autobiographical elements, reflecting the author’s own failed marriage and his resulting South American journey in 1933-1934. But on a deeper note, A Handful of Dust illustrates the parallels the savage nature of London society with uncivilized barbarity of the jungle. Waugh first used Tony as the protagonist in his 1933 short story titled The Man Who Liked Dickens. The piece was published in the US in Hearst's International–Cosmopolitan and in Britain in Nash's Pall Mall Magazine. Tony’s story was then serialized — after much revision and expansion — under the title A Flat in London. When it came time to publish the story as a novel, Waugh selected the title A Handful of Dust, inspired by a line in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land: "I will show you fear in a handful of dust." Upon publication, the critical reception of A Handful of Dust was less than impressive. Yet the novel was and has remained popular with the public and has never been out of print. A Handful of Dust is ranked 34th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. It is also listed as one of TIME’s “100 Best Novels” (since 1923).
Read More: Identifying first editions of A Handful of Dust (Uniform Edition of Evelyn Waugh's novels)
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Details
- Bookseller
- Bluebird Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 88217
- Title
- A Handful of Dust (Uniform Edition of Evelyn Waugh's novels)
- Author
- WAUGH, Evelyn
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+ in Very Good dust jacket
- Publisher
- Chapman and Hall
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1950
Terms of Sale
Bluebird Books
All sales sold on a satisfaction guaranteed basis--all we ask is that you notify us within 30 days of purchase that you would like to return an item.
About the Seller
Bluebird Books
Biblio member since 2005
Littleton, Colorado
About Bluebird Books
Bluebird Books is the bookselling business of Eric Mayer, operating from my base in Littleton, Colorado. I specialize in classic fiction and literature, books on birds and natural history, railroadiana, biography, history and many other genres. Bluebird Books features publications by the Modern Library and Everyman's Library. I offer free shipping on books shipped within the US via USPS Media Mail. INTERNATIONAL ORDERS: I recommend that you use Biblio.com for your international orders because they have formed a partnership with Asendia to allow for much more affordable shipping on parcels weighing under 5 lb. (about 2.26 kg).
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Good+
- A term used to denote a condition a slight grade better than Good.
- Leaves
- Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- 12mo
- A duodecimo is a book approximately 7 by 4.5 inches in size, or similar in size to a contemporary mass market paperback. Also...
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