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White, Edmund.
NOCTURNES FOR THE KING OF NAPLES.
New York City, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1978. Hardcover. First Edition/First Printing. 148 pages. Fine/Fine. Signed. Slight wear on DJ corners and spine and one chip on edge of DJ flap. The author's second novel. One of the most important literary events of the year 1978. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published to enormous critical acclaim, it cemented Edmund White's controversial reputation as the single most influential and brilliant American gay novelist of our time, our Genet. "A baroque invention of quite startling brilliance and intensity; a paean to that least celebrated of heroes, the second person" (Gore Vidal). "This is the only novel I know entirely written according to the demands of the pleasure principle. And pleasure has so many more tragic possibilities than happiness, as Oscar Wilde said, that it requires many altars, many votive lights. White has eroticized the classical unities: Place is sensual here, time is remembered only, and action is ecstatic, to create a dazzling, lacerating novel which makes only one exaction of the reader: That he recognize his own capacity for receiving delight" (Richard Howard). A masterpiece of homo-eroticism and aesthetic pleasure, this is a "must-have" title for Edmund White collectors. This copy is prominently and beautifully signed in black pen on the title page by Edmund White. This is one of very few signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition still available online and is in fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A very scarce signed copy thus. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1994 for "Genet". Anointed by Vladimir Nabokov as his American successor. One of the finest living American writers. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER EDMUND WHITE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0312576536. $90.00 |
