New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. Very Good in Very Good+ dust jacket. 1934. Hardcover. Facsimile DJ with 'Recent Fiction' list to rear, but no price to front flap. Spine slightly cocked. Front hinge well started, showing webbing. Wear to extremities with bottom corners bumped. Binding could be tighter ; Includes publisher's errata slip regarding Maugham's 'Sheppey.' ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 301 pages .

Synopsis

At the ripe age of twenty-eight, John O’Hara completed Appointment in Samarra, his first novel, in less than four months. At a similarly quick pace, the events of the book take place in a span of just three days. In this brief time, Appointment in Samarra tells of the increasingly impulsive and self-destructive acts that lead to the main character’s suicide. Julian English, once a high-ranking member of the community of Gibbsville, angers and alienates those close to him, resulting in the rapid decline of his social status. Specific explanations for Julian’s behavior are unclear in the text, though personal insecurities along with his alcoholism undoubtedly play a role. The small-town prejudices of Gibbsville (O’Hara’s fictionalized version of his hometown, Pottsville, Pennsylvania) greatly affect Julian’s demise as well. Omniscient narration works to expose these prejudices via the inner thoughts of various people in the town. The title, Appointment in Samarra, is a reference to W. Somerset Maugham's 1933 retelling of an old story in his play, Sheppey. In the story, which appears as an epigraph for the novel, Death speaks of meeting a merchant in Samarra, informing the reader from the beginning of the novel’s fatal ending. In his foreword to the 1952 reprint, O'Hara says that the working title for the novel was The Infernal Grove. It was not until fellow writer Dorothy Parker showed him the story in Maugham's play that he got the idea for the title Appointment in Samarra. Modern Library ranked Appointment in Samarra 22nd on its list of the “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century.

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Details

Bookseller: Complete Traveller Antiquarian Bookstore (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 16508
Title: APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA
Author: O'Hara, John
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used - Very Good in Very Good+ dust jacket
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace and Company
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 1934
Bookseller catalogs: Literature;

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Complete Traveller Antiquarian Bookstore

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Complete Traveller Antiquarian Bookstore

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About Complete Traveller Antiquarian Bookstore

The Complete Traveller Antiquarian Bookstore grew out of The Complete Traveller Bookstore, the first travel bookstore in the United States. Owners Harriet and Arnold Greenberg were (and are) travel writers and Arnold, a life-long collector of antiquarian books. Many customers have combined their purchases of new guidebooks with editions of older classics. While the largest number of titles in the Antiquarian Bookstore are travel related, our collections include many first editions of fiction and literature, and even some unusual children's books. Those of you who have visited our store have seen one of the country's premier collections of authentic Baedekers. The small red-covered books are considered the first modern travel guides and are treasured for their great historic detail and fold out maps throughout. From the rare "Indien" to the prosaic "Central Italy," we have them all. We are proud of our rapidly expanding collection of rare titles dealing with the history, culture, peoples and communities of New York City and New York State. Other specialties include: The A&C Black Twenty Shilling series--books to far-flung destinations that are filled with scores of colorful illustrations. And, the state and city guides of the American Guide Series, a depression-era project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and written by many who later became renowned.

Glossary

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Facsimile: An exact copy of an original work. In books, it refers to a copy or reproduction, as accurate as possible, of an original...
Cocked: Refers to a state where the spine of a book is lightly "twisted" in such a way that the front and rear boards of a book do not...
Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Spine: The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Hinge: The portion of the book closest to the spine that allows the book to be opened and closed.
Errata: Errata: aka Errata Slip A piece of paper either laid in to the book correcting errors found in the printed text after being...
Good+: A term used to denote a condition a slight grade better than Good.