The Crimson Petal and the White

Large 8vo. Pp. [xii], 898, [1]. Printed cream-white wraps.

Production fault results in the first twenty pages being a quarter of an inch shorter than the rest of the book, without any loss to the text. Some soiling to page edges and a couple of spots where sections of the uppermost layer of the back cover have been torn out, leaving the overall shape intact, without any loss to the blurb.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Named a Best Book of the Year by People, Entertainment Weekly, and The Chicago Tribune. "Watch your step. Keep your wits about you; you will need them". Twenty years in its conception, research, and writing, and published originally in instalments on the internet, Faber's richly textured, multi-layered fourth novel depicts the precipitous ascent of a 19-year old prostitute through late Victorian London society. The novel Dickens might have written, had not Victorian decorum held him back.

In 2006, Canongate published a follow-up collection of short stories based on characters from the novel, entitled The Apple. Author's long-term Italian publishers, Einaudi, originally issued them a year earlier in Italian translation. Basis for the four-part BBC series, featuring Romola Garai, Chris O'Dowd, Gillian Anderson, Richard E. Grant, Shirley Henderson and Mark Gatiss. "Down-and-dirty tale of an upwardly mobile Victorian prostitute... a scintillating tour de force." –Sunday Telegraph.