Mosquitoes : A Novel

New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1933. Hardcover. Fine/Near Fine+. Second Edition of Faulkner's second novel, set in New Orleans and following a group of artists on a four-day yacht excursion on Lake Pontchartrain. Crown 8vo (186 x 125mm): [10],9-349,[1]pp, "apparently from the original plates." (Petersen) Publisher's French blue cloth, spine and front cover lettered in orange, fore-edge untrimmed, Grolier Book Shop ticket to lower front end paper; illustrated "card players" dust jacket priced $3.00. Not to be confused with the edition Liveright issued in 1955, in deep blue cloth stamped in gold with the jacket now varnished and different copy on the flaps, "probably a belated attempt by Liveright to capitalize on the Nobel Prize acclaim." (Petersen) Spine toe barely bumped, jacket lightly rubbed with several tiny edge tears, but a superb example, tightly bound and clean throughout. Petersen A4.3. While in Paris in late 1925, Faulkner started a novel titled "Mosquito," but left it unfinished. After his first novel, Soldiers' Pay, was published in February, 1926, he started work again on Mosquitoes (now retitled), drawing on material from two unpublished short stories ("Adolescence" and "Don Giovanni") and several of his poems and early sketches. "Unique among Faulkner's works, it directly addresses artistic matters in arguments and debates put into the mouths of several characters, primarily Dawson Fairchild and Julius Kauffman. In these debates Faulkner, as a young writer, seems to have been working out an aesthetic that would be important as a foundation for the major works that lay ahead." (Literary Encyclopedia) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).