New York: Vintage International, (2013.). First edition - A Vintage Original. Novel set in 1832, the year before slavery is abolished in South Africa. Philida is the mother of four children by Francois Brink, the son of her master, and when Francois is going to marry a white woman, and Philida is about to be sold, she decides to risk her whole life by lodging a complaint against Francois. Based on the real story of a slave woman determined to take control of her own life, for better or for worse. Finalist for the Man Booker Award. 310 pp. Advance Readers Copy sticker on back cover.
Condition: Fine in illustrated wrappers with self-flaps (as new, but with line on bottom edge.)
London: Duckworth & Co., (1982) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - The third novel by this highly praised English author, this was short-listed for the Booker Prize. "Set in London in 1954, it follows the adventures of Aunt Irene and her nephew Kyril when Valentine, a postulant at the convent where IreneÕs sister is the reverend mother, comes to stay with them, ostensibly to test her vocation in the world. . . . Valentine is very much an outsider: black, Caribbean, quiet, and devoutly religious. The injection of this alien into Aunt IreneÕs Chelsea home becomes the catalyst for many comic situations. , , [but] cutting through the mirth are grotesque, even macabre elements, including accidental deaths and suicide"…
London: Duckworth & Co., (1982) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - The third novel by this highly praised English author, this was short-listed for the Booker Prize. "Set in London in 1954, it follows the adventures of Aunt Irene and her nephew Kyril when Valentine, a postulant at the convent where IreneÕs sister is the reverend mother, comes to stay with them, ostensibly to test her vocation in the world. . . . Valentine is very much an outsider: black, Caribbean, quiet, and devoutly religious. The injection of this alien into Aunt IreneÕs Chelsea home becomes the catalyst for many comic situations. , , [but] cutting through the mirth are grotesque, even macabre elements, including accidental deaths and suicide" (Marian Crowe).SIGNED on the title page. Ellis, the wife of the publisher Colin Haycraft, and the fiction editor at Duckworth, was both a true Bohemian and a fiercely devout Catholic. 159 pp. ISBN: 0-7156-16455.
PHILIDA.
THE 27TH KINGDOM.
