Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Zuleika Dobson or An Oxford Love Story [SIGNED BY ILLUSTRATOR]

Baltimore: Limited Editions Club, 1960. Limited edition. Hardcover. 1/1500. Large Quarto. (xvi), [2], 277pp, [1]. Blue-grey paper covered cardboard slipcase with pink and black label, pink lettering on spine. Baby blue buckram boards with purple and black illustration on front cover, purple label with gilt lettering and black border on spine. Lustrously illustrated end papers. Speckled paper edges.

This limited edition, #87 of 1500 copies hand numbered and signed by illustrator George Him, contains lavish color illustrations throughout, some illustrations in grey, black and white. Zuleika Dobson, full title Zuleika Dobson, or, an Oxford love story, is the only novel by Max Beerbohm, a very successful satire of undergraduate life at Oxford published in 1911. It includes the famous line "Death cancels all engagements" and presents a corrosive view of Edwardian Oxford. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Zuleika Dobson 59th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The book largely employs a third-person narrator limited to the character of Zuleika (pronounced "Zu-lee-ka", not "Zu-like-a"), then shifting to that of the Duke, then halfway through the novel suddenly becoming a first-person narrator who claims inspiration from the Greek Muse Clio, with his all-seeing narrative perspective provided by Zeus. This allows the narrator to also see the ghosts of notable historical visitors to Oxford, who are present but otherwise invisible to the human characters at certain times in the novel, adding an element of the supernatural.

Slipcase with water stains, sunning to spine. Slipcase nicked along opening edge. Binding with light smudging to spine. Slipcase in very good-, binding in very good+, interior in near fine to fine condition overall. Very good- to fine. Item #45259

Price: $40.00

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