The Italian Girl

First edition. Crown 8vo. Pp. 214, [2]. Turquoise cloth boards, titled in gilt to spine. Jacket design (priced 21s. net to front flap), wood engraved frontispiece and rear endpaper illustration by Reynolds Stone.

Signed by Author to title page. 'Harrod's Library' blind-stamped to rear paste-down, upper corners of lightly soiled boards gently bumped, foxed to top and fore edges, faint crease to verso of d/w spine, else Near Fine.

Previous owner's name pencilled-in to front endpaper, with further entries in pencil to rear endpaper noting place and date of purchase (Harrod's Library July 1965 sale), date of signing by author (November 1965), and dates of two re-reads (1999/2000). [These could easily be erased, leaving no trace behind, but we think it adds to the authenticity of the volume to leave them in place].

Murdoch's eighth novel. The Book Society's 'Alternative Choice'. A witty, elegant comedy of errors with psychological underpinnings, regarding a man's reunion with his estranged family. A play version of the text, co-authored with James Saunders and first performed at the Bristol Old Vic in 1967 before it moved to Wyndham's Theatre on the West End, was published in wraps by Samuel French in 1968.

"Iris Murdoch really knows how to write – she can tell a story, delineate a character, catch an atmosphere with deadly accuracy." –John Betjeman

[Fletcher & Bove A0242]