I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, and Playlets of the War
London: Constable and Company, 1919. Item #06613
Heartbreak House
A Superb Copy in the Original Dust Jacket
SHAW, George Bernard. Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, and Playlets of the War. London: Constable and Company, 1919.
First edition. Octavo (7 x 4 7/8 inches; 178 x 124 mm.). xlix, [1], 266, [2, advertisements] pp.
P
ublisher’s light green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, top edge trimmed, others uncut. Some light edge foxing. Original gray dust jacket printed in black. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Chemised in a green cloth folder, housed in a quarter green morocco clamshell case, spine ruled and lettered in gilt.
First edition of one of George Bernard Shaw’s most celebrated later plays, Heartbreak House, a work conceived during the First World War and often regarded as Shaw’s response to the social and political disintegration of Edwardian England. Subtitled “A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes,” the play reflects the influence of Anton Chekhov, while retaining Shaw’s distinctive wit and satirical force.
Copies in the original dust jacket are uncommon, and examples preserved in such fine condition are particularly scarce.
Browning, p. 598.
Price: $450.00