A Handful of Dust
by Evelyn Waugh
- Used
- fair
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Fair/No Jacket
- Seller
-
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Boston: Little, Brown And Company, 1944. 308pp. Original red cloth covered boards. Stated "Republished June 1944". Previous owner's name on FEP. Inner pages are clean (unmarked) but yellowed with age. Hinges are creased and text block is pulling away from boards but pages are still secure. Covers are scuffed & finger soiled, spine sunned, bumping to head/heel of spine, rubbing to extremities, corners slightly frayed. Nice reading copy. . Hard Cover. Fair/No Jacket. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.
Synopsis
British writer Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust tells the story of Tony Last, a disillusioned and soon-to-be-divorced country squire, who travels of the jungle of Brazil — only to find himself the prisoner of an unhinged settler who forces him to continuously read aloud the works of Charles Dickens. A Handful of Dust is often grouped with Waugh’s satirical novels prior to World War II; however, because of its serious undertones, it can also been seen as a transitional work to his more substantial postwar fiction. The novel has autobiographical elements, reflecting the author’s own failed marriage and his resulting South American journey in 1933-1934. But on a deeper note, A Handful of Dust illustrates the parallels the savage nature of London society with uncivilized barbarity of the jungle. Waugh first used Tony as the protagonist in his 1933 short story titled The Man Who Liked Dickens. The piece was published in the US in Hearst's International–Cosmopolitan and in Britain in Nash's Pall Mall Magazine. Tony’s story was then serialized — after much revision and expansion — under the title A Flat in London. When it came time to publish the story as a novel, Waugh selected the title A Handful of Dust, inspired by a line in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land: "I will show you fear in a handful of dust." Upon publication, the critical reception of A Handful of Dust was less than impressive. Yet the novel was and has remained popular with the public and has never been out of print. A Handful of Dust is ranked 34th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. It is also listed as one of TIME’s “100 Best Novels” (since 1923).
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- after-words bookstore
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 130219
- Title
- A Handful of Dust
- Author
- Evelyn Waugh
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fair
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket
- Publisher
- Little, Brown And Company
- Place of Publication
- Boston
- Date Published
- 1944
- Size
- 12mo - over 6¾" - 7&
- Keywords
- Literature
- Bookseller catalogs
- Literature;
Terms of Sale
after-words bookstore
We accept Visa, MC, AMEX, and checks in USD only. Payment is due in full before shipment. Shipping cost: $5.50 media mail in the continental U.S.A. for 2 books or less. After that, $.50 for each additional book. Priority mail is based on size and weight of book. Cost starts at 10.00 but will be adjusted for smaller books that fit into Priority Mail boxes and envelopes. Oversized and/or heavy books may cost more. UPS/RPS or Fedex available at additional cost upon request. All shipments to Mexico or Canada over four (4) pounds is subject to rate increase. Returns will be accepted on a limited basis. If any item arrives and is not in the condition described on Biblio, or is not the edition listed on the website, we will refund both the item and shipping both ways - upon receipt of the return package. Otherwise, our used book sales are final.
About the Seller
after-words bookstore
Biblio member since 2006
Chicago, Illinois
About after-words bookstore
We are an open shop with 55,000 volumes. About 1/4 of our inventory is comprised of new books, the rest are used and out of print.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Soiled
- Generally refers to minor discoloration or staining.
- Sunned
- Damage done to a book cover or dust jacket caused by exposure to direct sunlight. Very strong fluorescent light can cause slight...
- 12mo
- A duodecimo is a book approximately 7 by 4.5 inches in size, or similar in size to a contemporary mass market paperback. Also...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- 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....
- Reading Copy
- Indicates a book that is perfectly serviceable for reading. It may have a defect or damage. As such, reading copy is not a...
- Text Block
- Most simply the inside pages of a book. More precisely, the block of paper formed by the cut and stacked pages of a book....
This Book’s Categories
Mary Shelley - Mother of Science Fiction
“I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.” - Learn more about Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein
Collecting The Beat Generation
The Beat Generation was born out of WWII, and it still continues to exert considerable influence on today’s literary scene. Biblio sellers have a fantastic collection of Beat Generation books and ephemera for browsing.
