1st, signed by author, Babel Tower by A. S. Byatt, Franklin Library

Description: Babel Tower by A. S. Byatt (signed) Frontispiece by Pieter Brueghel the Elder Franklin Library First Edition Description: Leatherbound hardback book published by Franklin Library in 1996. Bound in top grade gray leather with 22kt gold lettering and cover artwork. Hubbed spine, acid neutral paper with page edges gilded, marbled endpapers, and a satin ribbon book mark sewn in. Issued by Franklin Library signed by the author on a special signature page without inscription or personalization. Issued by Franklin Library to subscribers of the Signed First Edition Society. Synopsis: At the heart of Babel Tower are two law cases, twin strands of the Establishment's web, that shape the story: a painful divorce and custody suit and the prosecution of an "obscene" book. Frederica, the independent young heroine, is involved in both. She startled her intellectual circle of friends by marrying a young country squire, whose violent streak has now been turned against her. Fleeing to London with their young son, she gets a teaching job in an art school, where she is thrown into the thick of the new decade. Poets and painters are denying the value of the past, fostering dreams of rebellion, which focus around a strange, charismatic figure -- the near-naked, unkempt and smelly Jude Mason, with his flowing gray hair, a hippie before his time. We feel the growing unease, the undertones of sex and cruelty. The tension erupts over his novel Babble Tower, set in a past revolutionary era, where a band of people retire to a castle to found an ideal community. In this book, as in the courtrooms, as in the art school's haphazard classes and on the committee set up to study "the teaching of language," people function increasingly in groups. Many are obsessed with protecting the young, but the fashionable notion of children as innocent and free slowly comes to seem wishful, and perilous. Babel Tower is the third, following The Virgin in the Garden and Still Life, of a planned quartet of novels set in different mid-century time frames. The personal and legal crises of Frederica mirror those of the age. This is the decade of the Beatles, the Death of God, the birth of computer languages. In Byatt's vision, the presiding genius of the 1960s seems to be a blend of the Marquis de Sade and The Hobbit. The resulting confusion, charted with a brilliant imaginative sympathy, is as comic as it is threatening and bizarre. Condition: Binding - very good, rear corners slightly bumped, top front spine corner slightly bumped, top page edge gilding is either a little rubbed or soiled and has a few minor flaws, a couple of slight flaws to the bottom page edge gilding. Dust jacket - none, as issued. Our Business Policies: Use the Contact Seller link near the top of this listing to see our FAQs, which should answer most questions about our business and listing policies. We have moved the extensive text we used to have here to those FAQs. Shipping and Packing: General Information: We always ship in sturdy new boxes with premium heavy duty packing tape, bubblewrap and filler to keep the item(s) away from the sides of the box. The pictures below show the boxes that we use for shipping. A Note On Customs: When customs forms are required for a shipment, we fill them out honestly, stating that the contents are merchandise and giving the price you paid for the item (not including the shipping) as the value. Please do not ask us to do otherwise. Take any customs duty that you will have to pay into consideration before making your purchase. Please note that many countries have restrictions on the import of certain goods and sometimes on the maximum value that can be shipped to the country by various shipping methods. Priority Mail International insurance cannot be purchased for all countries and some limit the amount of insurance that can be purchased (default indemnity coverage seems to apply to all countries). Details on shipping conditions by country can be found on the United States Post Office web site.

Price: 90 USD

Location: Fresno, California

End Time: 2024-02-08T12:40:14.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6.6 USD