A STATE OF SIEGE [First American edition]

Janet Frame

Verlag: George Braziller, New York, USA, 1966

First impression of the first American edition, with 'First printing' stated on the printer's page. ***Very good in sea-green cloth-covered boards with black and gilt titles to the spine. No bumps or creases to the boards which are clean and unmarked. Head and tail of spine and edges of boards slightly rubbed. Very light unobtrusive foxing to the top edge and fore-edge of the page block. Internally also very good with no inscriptions. Pages clean. No creases or tears. Spine tight. ***In a very good colour-illustrated dustwrapper. Extremities of dustwrapper very slightly rubbed and creased. A couple of very small surface-splash marks to the front panel of the dustwrapper. Very small nick to the top edge of the back panel. No fading. Dustwrapper bright. ***214mm x 148mm. 246 pages. ***'A South Pacific Paradise --- Ah, Karemoana, where there is sun, and sea, where oranges miraculously grow on trees - Karemoana, the final destination of a pilgrim, Miss Malfred Signal, fifty-three, retired teacher of drawing, whose life has been dedicated to nursing her dying mother and to instructing generations of young girls in the art of accurately depicting shadows. But now her mother has died and Malfred feels free to break away, to begin life anew, to see with new eyes. ***She journeys "up north" for a New Zealander "up north" is our "down south" - and begins to settle in her idyllic island home, a little white cottage by the sea. But Malfred also has a permanent home she cannot leave behind --- and in that room without shadows lives her father, long dead --- her mother, very ordinary, who took so long to die; Graham, her brother, and Lucy, her scatterbrained sister; and Wilfred, her lover who had died in the war. ***Malfred had so looked forward to savoring the feeling of aloneness. But there is an "element", she is ominously told, loose on the island. Her first long night in her new home is one of terror; there is a storm raging, an intruder pounding on the door- undoubtedly a representative of that ubiquitous "element." She calls the police, and the doctor, and the priest, and although they seem to hear her well enough - over the phone that has not yet been connected - they make no response to her desperate cry for help. ***This, then, is the state of siege Miss Frame paints, in pigments of light and dark, her brush dipped in the themes of selfhood and loneliness, of death and its counterpart, life with its need ot "manage" somehow. ***Readers of Janet Frame's earlier novels will soon recognize the true setting of A State of Siege - not the sparkling, sunny isle "full of noises," but the inner landscape inhabited by dreams and memories and yearnings, the landscape of the heart. To see anew, with fresh eyes, as one reborn, that is what Malfred longed for, and what we are privileged to sense for ourselves in this extraordinary novel.' [Quote taken from the front flap and back panel of the dustwrapper] ***First impression of the first US edition, complete in its original dustwrapper, in nice collectable condition - extremely hard to find in the UK. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 6141x

Bibliografische Details

Titel: A STATE OF SIEGE [First American edition]
Verlag: George Braziller, New York, USA
Erscheinungsdatum: 1966
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Very Good
Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Very Good
Auflage: First Edition