ABSENT IN THE SPRING

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original greyish blue cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. A fine copy, the binding square and tight, bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the very lightly rubbed dustwrapper that has just a few very light marks and is entirely without loss or tears. Not price-clipped (7s 6d net to the lower front flap). Scarce, exceptionally so in this condition.

Agatha Christie's third book (of six) published under the Mary Westmacott pseudonym. The title is taken from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 98 "From you have I been absent in the spring,…". The first edition was published in August 1944, the American edition (issued by Farrar and Rinehart) followed later the same year. Christie, in her autobiography (Collins, 1977) writes of 'Absent in the Spring': "Shortly after that, I wrote the one book that has satisfied me completely. It was a new Mary Westmacott, the book that I had always wanted to write, that had been clear in my mind. It was the picture of a woman with a complete image of herself, of what she was, but about which she was completely mistaken. Through her own actions, her own feelings and thoughts, this would be revealed to the reader. She would be, as it were, continually meeting herself, not recognising herself, but becoming increasingly uneasy. What brought about this revelation would be the fact that for the first time in her life she was alone – completely alone – for four or five days... I wrote that book in three days flat…I went straight through…I don't think I have ever been so tired…I didn't want to change a word and although I don't know myself of course what it is really like, it was written as I meant to write it, and that is the proudest joy and author can have".