THE BLACK BOOK

First Olympia Press edition. In the iconic green, black and white wraps of the Traveller's Companion series (no. 77), with the illustrated dustwrapper. A near fine copy, clean, tight and square with a very faint crease to the centre of the spine. The tip of the bottom edge of the page block is a little dusty; otherwise without marks or inscriptions. The near fine dustwrapper is bright and unfaded, with a couple of small, neat nicks to the head of the spine. Not price-clipped; correctly priced (FRANCS 1500) to the rear flap. A beautiful copy.

Durrell's first novel was originally published in Paris by Jack Kahane's Obelisk Press in 1938. This is the second edition, with new preface by the author, also published in Paris, this time by Maurice Girodias' legendary Olympia Press. It is no. 77 in the Traveller's Companion series – no. 76 was Burroughs' "Naked Lunch", no. 78 would be Genet's "The Thief's Journal". Owing to its explicit sexual content, Faber and Faber offered to issue an expurgated edition, an offer that Durrell declined. The novel wasn't published in the United Kingdom until 1973 (it was published in the United States in 1960).