Tag Archives: old books

First Edition ‘The Age of Innocence’ by Edith Wharton #oldbooks #bookcovers

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Published in 1920, The Age of Innocence was Edith Wharton’s twelfth novel and the one which would win her the Pulitzer Prize in 1921; the first woman to do so. This [below left] is the American first edition, published by D Appleton.

It is said the first choice of the Pulitzer judges was Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, which was rejected on ‘political grounds’. Wharton’s story first appeared in 1920 in the magazine Pictorial Review, serialised in four parts, then published in book form in the USA by D Appleton.

Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence – character study by Joshua Reynolds

It is believed the title of the novel was taken from the painting by Joshua Reynolds [above] which was much reproduced in the late 18th century and came to represent the commercial face of childhood.

Edith Wharton

Wordsworth Classics current ed 1994

The current edition by Wordsworth Classics [above] dates from 1994.
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The story
Set in 1870s upper class New York society, The Age of Innocence was set around the time of Wharton’s own birth. She wrote the book had allowed her to find “a momentary escape in going back to my childish memories of a long-vanished America… it was growing more and more evident that the world I had grown up in and been formed by had been destroyed in 1914.”
Gentleman lawyer Newland Archer is due to marry the shy and beautiful May Welland until he encounters May’s cousin. The exotic Countess Ellen Olenska pays no court to society’s fastidious rules and, scandalously, is separated from her husband, a Polish count. To avoid scandal, Ellen is advised to live separately from her husband rather than pursue divorce. Newland tries to forget Ella and marries May but their marriage is loveless. Newland and Ellen meet again and as Newland falls in love with Ellen his behaviour breaks the rules of accepted behaviour. When he finally decides to follow Ellen to Europe, May announces she is pregnant.

Other editions

Films

Edith Wharton

film poster 1993

The 1993 film [above] starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Newland Archer, Michelle Pfeiffer as the Countess Olenska and Winona Ryder as May Welland, was directed by Martin Scorsese. Watch the trailer.
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Edith Wharton

film poster 1934

A 1934 film [above] with the same title took inspiration from the Wharton novel but set the action two generations later. Dallas Archer has fallen in love with a married woman, to the displeasure of all his family except his grandfather Newland Archer. And in 1924, a black and white film of The Age of Innocence [below] starred Elliott Dexter as Newland.

Edith Wharton

film poster 1924

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘It’ by Stephen King 
‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce
‘Five on a Treasure Island’ by Enid Blyton

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton #oldbooks #bookcovers https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4aX via @SandraDanby

First Edition ‘The Heat of the Day’ by Elizabeth Bowen #oldbooks #bookcovers

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First published in the UK by Knopf in 1948 [below] and in the USA the following year, The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen is one of the ‘must read’ novels about London in World War Two. Written during the war and highly regarded for its authenticity, it is both a spy story and a mystery.

Time is a theme running throughout the novel both in the sense that war has severed the connection between the present and the past, and that time is precious and every minute is essential. Bowen liked to lift the lid from orderly life to see what lurked beneath.

Elizabeth Bowen

Vintage Classics 1998 – my copy

My dog-eared Vintage Classics paperback is the 1998 edition [above]. My favourite cover is probably the 1986 Penguin edition [see ‘Other Editions’ below] with its striking sketch of a young woman with her coat collar turned up.

Read my review of The Heat of the Day.

Elizabeth Bowen

Vintage Classics current ed

The current edition by Vintage Classics [above] is available as paperback and Kindle.
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The story
The story starts at a concert in a London park during The Blitz. Stella and Louie are displaced women in the city, both are unfaithful in their relationships. The main focus is on the triangular relationship between Stella and her lover Robert Kelway, and the interfering Harrison, a British intelligence agent. Robert, who loves with Stella, is convinced that Robert is a German spy.

Other editions

 

Films & Television

Elizabeth Bowen

Granada Television poster

In 1989, a Granada Television drama production featured Patricia Hodge, Michael Gambon, Michael York, Peggy Ashcroft and Imelda Staunton. Watch at You Tube.

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce
‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier
‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ by John Fowles

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition THE HEAT OF THE DAY by Elizabeth Bowen #oldbooks #bookcovers https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4A1 via @SandraDanby

First Edition ‘It’ by @StephenKing #oldbooks #bookcovers

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Published in 1986, It was Stephen King’s 22nd book and the 17th written under his name. His first published novel, Carrie, appeared in 1973 though it was actually the fourth he wrote, on a a portable typewriter belonging to his wife. It tells of seven children as they are terrorized by an evil entity that exploits the fears of its victims to disguise itself while hunting its prey. I have read it once, in my twenties, and it terrified me. I was unable to sleep for days afterwards and have not seen the films, though I still own the paperback.

Stephen King

My copy, the New English Library 1987 edition

My paperback [above] is the 1987 New English Library edition with the cover line ‘The Terrifying New Bestseller’.

The first edition [above left] was first published in the USA by Viking on September 15, 1986. King first thought of the story in 1978 and began writing it in 1981. His original concept was that the title character would live in the local sewer system, inspired by the Norwegian folk tale Three Billy Goats Gruff, who lived beneath a bridge.

Stephen King

It by Stephen King – the current edition by Hodder

The current UK edition [above] is published by Hodder.
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The story
During a heavy rainstorm, six-year-old Georgie Denbrough sails a paper boat – made for him by his brother – along the rainy streets before it washed into a storm drain. Peering into the drain, George sees a pair of glowing yellow eyes. It is an eccentric clown who introduces himself as Mr Bob Gray, or Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Georgie declines a balloon but is enticed by Pennywise to reach into the drain and retrieve his boat,. The clown rips off the child’s arm and leaves Georgie to die.

Other editions

Films

Stephen King

It, the DVD 2017

Watch the trailers for the 1990 two-part mini-television series and the 2017 film [above]
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If you like old books, check out these:-
‘Couples’ by John Updike
‘The Moonstone’ by Wilkie Collins
‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition IT by @StephenKing #oldbooks #bookcovers https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4ak via @SandraDanby

First Edition ‘Lucky Jim’ by Kingsley Amis #oldbooks #bookcovers

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Kingsley Amis’s comic novel Lucky Jim, his debut novel, won the 1955 Somerset Maugham Award for Fiction. First published in the UK in 1953 by Victor Gollancz, followed in the US a year later. Famous for its slapstick set pieces, Lucky Jim regularly appears on ‘greatest novels’ lists.

The current edition by Penguin Modern Classics [below] dates from 2000.
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Kingsley Amis

Penguin Modern Classics 2000 current ed

The story
Jim Dixon is a lecturer in medieval history at a red brick English university, he is on probation and afraid of losing his job. To establish his credentials he must publish a learned article but discovers that the editor, to whom he submitted it, has swiped it as his own and translated it into Italian. Jim’s on-off girlfriend Margaret tries emotional blackmail at a house party, a tactic which backfires when Jim takes a liking to another girl, Christine. The action climaxes at a lecture which Jim must give on ‘Merrie England’. Nervous, he has one too many drinks beforehand to calm his nerves, denounces arty pretentiousness, and passes out.

Other editions

And my copy? Here it is.

Kingsley Amis

Penguin Classics 1982 my copy

Films

Kingsley Amis

1957 film poster

Starring Ian Carmichael as Jim, the 1957 film of Lucky Jim was directed by John Boulting and also starred Terry Thomas and Hugh Griffith. The film received mixed reviews.
Watch this clip of the Madrigal scene.
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Kingsley Amis

2003 film poster

In 2003 a television version was made starring Stephen Tomkinson as Jim and Keeley Hawes as Christine. Watch the trailer.

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘Jurassic Park’ by Michael Crichton
‘101 Dalmations’ by Dodie Smith
‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition LUCKY JIM by Kingsley Amis #oldbooks #bookcovers https://wp.me/p5gEM4-43w via @SandraDanby

First Edition ‘Lord Jim’ by Joseph Conrad #oldbooks #bookcovers

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Born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski on December 3, 1857 in Stolen Lands, Ukraine [then part of the Russian Empire, but once part of Poland] Joseph Conrad finally setted in England after living in Poland and France. On July 2,1886 he applied for British nationality, which was granted on August 19, 1886.Lord Jim was first published in the UK in 1900 by William Blackwood & Sons, having being serialised the previous year in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine’. There are many literary and film references to the novel. ‘Lord Jim’ is the name of a boat, and subsequently the nickname of the boat’s owner, Richard Blake, in Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald, winner of the Booker Prize in 1979. Read my review of Offshore.

In 1998, Lord Jim appeared at number 85 in American publisher Modern Library’s list of the One Hundred Best English Language Novels in the 20thCentury.

Joseph Conrad

Penguin Classics current edition

The current Penguin Classics edition [above] dates from 2007.
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The story
An English boy in a simple town has dreams bigger than the outdoors and embarks at an early age into the sailor’s life. The waters he travels reward him with the ability to explore the human spirit, while Conrad launches the story into both an exercise of his technical prowess and a delicately crafted picture of a character who reaches the status of a literary hero.

Other editions

And my copy? It’s a Penguin Modern Classics edition [below] which I bought while at university in 1981.

Joseph Conrad

Penguin Modern Classics 1985 – my copy

Films

Peter O’Toole [above] starred as Jim in the 1965 film, directed by Richard Brooks, with James Mason as Gentleman Brown. After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman [O’Toole] lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself. Joseph Conrad
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Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim film poster 1925A silent film of Lord Jim released in 1925 [above] starred Percy Marmount as Jim.

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘The Sea, The Sea’ by Iris Murdoch
‘The Secret Garden’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett
‘The Moonstone’ by Wilkie Collins

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad #oldbooks #bookcovers https://wp.me/p5gEM4-42d via @SandraDanby

First Edition: ‘Five on a Treasure Island’ by Enid Blyton #oldbooks #bookcovers

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In the midst of World War Two, Enid Blyton [below] continued writing. The first of her Famous Five series, Five on a Treasure Island, was published on September 11, 1942, in London by Hodder & Stoughton [below]. Next in the series was Five Go Adventuring Again, published in 1943.

Enid Blyton

[photo: Wikipedia]

Enid Blyton

Illustrator of the first edition was Eileen A Soper, who illustrated her own books and those for Elisabeth Gould as well as Blyton. Her series of designs of children and animals were used for a china series by Paragon China in the 1930s.

Enid BlytonThe current Hodder Children’s edition [above] dates from 2017.
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The story
Three children – Julian, Dick and Anne – spend their summer holidays with their Aunt and Uncle at Kirrin Cottage, in the village of Kirrin. There they meet their tomboy cousin Georgina, who prefers to be called George, and George’s dog Timmy. And so they become five. Exploring the nearby Kirrin Island, a storm descends and stirs up an old shipwreck from beneath the waves. Exploring the wreck, the five find a treasure map in a box and decide to find the gold. But when Uncle Quentin sells the box to an antique dealer, he wants the gold too.

Other editions

Films
The 1957 film, Five on a Treasure Island, starred Rel Grainger, Gillian Harrison, Richard Palmer and John Bailey, with Daga as Timmy. Watch it at You Tube.
Or watch the part one of the first episode of the 1995 television series, starring Jemima Rooper, Marco Williamson, Paul Child, Laura Petela and Connal as Timmy.
Read more about the Famous Five, and Enid Blyton’s other books, here.

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce
‘The Hobbit’ by JRR Tolkien
‘Watership Down’ by Richard Adams

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: FIVE ON A TREASURE ISLAND by Enid Blyton #oldbooks #bookcovers https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3VL via @SandraDanby

First Edition: ‘Couples’ by John Updike #oldbooks #bookcovers

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John Updike became popular for his Rabbit series about Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom and the film of his book, The Witches of Eastwick, starring a devilish Jack Nicholson. But Couples, first published in 1968 in the USA by Knopf [below], is hailed as the novel which brought the Sixties sexual revolution to literary fiction. First editions of the Knopf hardback can be found on eBay for $15, and £15 on Amazon UK. Perhaps one to lay down for the future? Updike won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice, in 1982 and 1991, for two of his Rabbit books.

John Updike

Couples Knopf 1968 1st ed

The current UK Penguin Classics edition [below] dates from 2007. Buy

John Updike

Couples Penguin Classics 2007 current ed

The story
It is 1962 in Tarbox, Massachusetts. Against a backdrop of real historical events – the loss of the USS Thresher in 1963, the Profumo Affair, the Kennedy assassination – a group of ten promiscuous couples struggle to reconcile modern sexual freedoms with established Protestant sexual behaviour. The lyrical descriptions of sex made the book rather notorious. When asked about the difficulties of writing about sex, Updike said, “They were no harder than landscapes and a little more interesting. It’s wonderful the way people in bed talk, the sense of voices and the sense of warmth, so that as a writer you become kind of warm also. The book is, of course, not about sex as such: It’s about sex as the emergent religion, as the only thing left.”

Other editions 

John Updike

Couples – my Penguin 1981 ed

Above is my edition of Couples, Penguin UK 1981 and, below, a variety of covers UK, US and international editions from 1968 to today.

Read the first paragraph of Couples.

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘The Moonstone’ by Wilkie Collins
‘1984’ by George Orwell
‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: COUPLES by John Updike #oldbooks #bookcovers https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3HJ via @SandraDanby

First Edition: ‘1984’ by George Orwell #oldbooks #firstedition

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A novel which needs no introduction, 1984 by George Orwell [below], first published in the UK in 1949, has populated modern culture with its terms. Big Brother. Doublethink. Thoughtcrime. Newspeak. Room 101. Memory Hole. It regularly features in Best Of lists.

A first UK edition green jacket is for sale at Peter Harrington [above] for £4,000; the first impression was issued in either green or red jackets. Another UK first edition is also for sale, £9,750, owned and inscribed by friends of Eric Blair [Orwell], Eleanor and Dennis Collings.
George Orwell The current UK Penguin edition [above] dates from 2004. Buy

The story
The year is 1984.  Airstrip One is a province of Oceania, one of three totalitarian super states that rule the world. It is ruled by the ‘Party’, its ideology is ‘Ingsoc’, its leader is ‘Big Brother’. The people must conform to the system, spied on by the ‘Thought Police’ using two-way telescreens. Winston Smith is a member of the middle class Outer Party, he rewrites historical records to conform to the state’s vision. Winston has an affair with Julia, something which is an act of rebellion as the Party insists sex should only take place for reproductive purposes. Winston suspects his boss, O’Brien, may be a member of a secret underground resistance called the ‘Brotherhood’.

The film
Not an easy film to watch but, at the same time, impossible to turn away from. In the 1984 film, Winston Smith is played by a young John Hurt with Richard Burton, in his last screen appearance, as Inner Party member O’Brien. George Orwell It remains chilling to this day. Watch this scene, the first meeting of O’Brien [Burton] and Winston [Hurt].

Other editions
Although I read Orwell’s Animal Farm for the first time as an eleven-year old, I didn’t read 1984 until university when the year itself was rapidly approaching. I still have my copy, it’s the 1974 Penguin edition [below]. George Orwell

Read the first paragraph of 1984.

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding
‘Jurassic Park’ by Michael Crichton
‘The Hobbit’ by JRR Tolkien

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: 1984 by George Orwell #oldbooks https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3GW via @SandraDanby

First Edition: ‘The Crying of Lot 49’ by Thomas Pynchon #oldbooks

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I admit here that I read Thomas Pynchon’s post-modern novella The Crying of Lot 49 at university and enjoyed it without really understanding it. First published in 1966, it tells the story of Oedipa Maas and what happens after her ex-partner dies. Pynchon had fun creating wonderful character names, so unusual and clever they reminded me of Charles Dickens – Oedipa’s partner is Pierce Inverarity, her husband is Wendell “Mucho” Maas, Oedipa’s lawyer Metzger works for Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus, and in a bar she meets Mike Fallopian. The plot is labyrinthine, it is a Marmite book, love it or hate it, and I suspects features on many people’s lists of unfinished books. It does, however, have some interesting cover design.

Thomas Pynchon

US 1st ed JB Lippincott & Co 1966

The first edition in the USA was published by JB Lippincott & Co [above]. The current Vintage Classics edition [below] was published in 1996. Buy here

Thomas Pynchon

Vintage 1996 current ed

The story
In brief, Oedipa’s ex partner Pierce has died and she is named as co-executor of his will. The catalyst to the story is her discovery of a set of stamps which may, or may not, have been used by a secret underground postal delivery system called the Trystero. As she travels around California meeting a host of eccentric characters, Oedipa discovers that the Trystero was defeated in the eighteenth century by a real postal system, Thurn and Taxis. However Trystero went underground and survived into the 1960s by using secret mailboxes disguised as regular waste bins displaying its slogan W.A.S.T.E [We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire] and its symbol, a muted post horn. Without proof, Oedipa fluctuates between believing, and not believing, in the Trystero. Is she imagining it, or is it a practical joke?

Other editions 
My copy, bought for university, is still on my shelf today. It’s the Picador 1979 edition.

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘An Ice Cream War’ by William Boyd
‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte
‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: THE CRYING OF LOT 49 by Thomas Pynchon #oldbooks https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Gt via @SandraDanby

First Edition: ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding #oldbooks

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A moral for all times about self-governance, Lord of the Flies was the first novel of schoolteacher William Golding. It tells the story of a group of British schoolboys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. It was not an instant hit, going out of print in the USA a year after publication, but it went onto be a bestseller.

William Golding

Faber original UK cover 1954

In the middle of an unspecified war, a plane crashes on a remote island in the Pacific. Fair-haired Ralph believes that grown-ups will come to rescue them, but Piggy says they should get organised. “Put first things first and act proper.” The novel explores the conflicting human impulses towards civilisation, social order, living according to the rules, with the pursuit of power. It is abrilliantly observed study of teenagers free of the usual rules and conventions imposed by adults.
Artwork for the first UK Faber edition [above], published on September 17, 1954 is by Anthony Gross. The current Faber edition [below] was first published in 1997. Buy here.

William Golding

Faber 1997 current ed

The story
During a wartime evacuation, a British aeroplane crashes on an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean. The only survivors are adolescent boys. Two boys – fair-haired Ralph, and spectacles-wearing Piggy – find a conch which Ralph uses as a horn to draw all the boys into one place. As Ralph appears responsible for bringing them all together, he commands some authority over the boys and is elected chief, despite not winning the votes of a boys’ choir led by Jack. In the early days the boys discover a source of food in fruit and wild pigs. But Piggy quickly becomes the butt of jokes and the initial sense of order disappears as the boys become idle. Their time is spent having fun and developing paranoias about the island; particularly a ‘beast’ that they all begin to believe exists.

The films
There have been three film adaptations based on the book. In 1963, Peter Brook’s Lord of the Flies was supported by Golding. In 1976 there was a Filipino television film called Alkitrang Dugo, the third Lord of the Flies film in 1990 was directed by Harry Hook.

Other editions 

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce
‘101 Dalmations’ by Dodie Smith
‘The Sea, The Sea’ by Iris Murdoch

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding #oldbooks https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3G7 via @SandraDanby