The Looking-Glass War

Published by William Heinemann Ltd, London; 1965. 8vo. 246pp. First edition, first impression. Condition: Near Fine/Near Fine.

Bound in it's original black cloth binding with silver title to the spine, this book is in excellent condition, with just a hint of bumping to the base of the spine, although this really is negligible, and two small, faint marks to the rear. Inside, the book is in equally smart condition, clean and bright, with no marks or damage to speak of apart from a little spotting to the page rims. It is in remarkable condition for a book of this age.

The book is housed in it's original dust jacket, which is bright and clean, but clipped. There is a touch of bumping to the edges and a small mark to the bottom of the front flap. There is also some fading to the spine. However, apart from these minor points, the jacket is in very smart condition, which is increasingly harder to find with this title, and it compliments the book beautifully.

Overall, this is a very collectible example of this popular first edition by John Le Carré, his fourth novel, which will sit beautifully in any modern first collection. Disturbed by readers' romanticisation of his preceding novel, 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold', le Carre wrote this explicit satire of a fictional British intelligence agency, known as 'The Department', and its multiple botched attempts to verify a Communist defector's story of a Soviet missile build-up in East Germany, in an attempt to deconstruct the mythos of MI6 in the post war era.