THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original brown cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in the Mon Mohan designed dustwrapper, reproducing a watercolour of the Grand Canal in Venice by J. M. W. Turner. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents, with some toning to the poor quality paper-stock, are otherwise clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the very lightly rubbed dustwrapper that has some fading to the spine. Not price-clipped (£5.50 on the front flap).

Although the city remains unnamed in the novel, McEwan's second novel clearly takes its place in a line of fictional works to portray Venice as a setting for the menacing and unsettling. The novel was shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize and later adapted for the 1990 film (unambiguously set in Venice) directed by Paul Schrader with a screenplay by Harold Pinter and starring Christopher Walken, Helen Mirren, Natasha Richardson and Rupert Everett.