The Black Prince

First edition. 8vo., pp. xviii, 363, [1]. Purple paper-covered boards, lettered in silver to spine. Jacket design by Christopher Cornford.

Christmas card, signed by Murdoch with 'very' best wishes and with no recipient specified, tipped in. Light foxing to textblock edges with some minor tanning to price-clipped dust jacket flaps, else Near Fine.

Author's fifteenth novel. Loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, The Black Prince is bookended with forewords and postscripts by featured characters. It focuses on the latter life of its protagonist, ageing London author Bradley Pearson, during which time he falls in love with the daughter of friend and literary rival, Arnold Baffin. A stage adaptation by the author premiered at the Aldwych Theatre, London, on the 25th April, 1989, for a five-month run under the direction of Stuart Burge, with Ian McDiarmid as Bradley Pearson. "A source of wonder and delight." –Spectator