Pfaelzer Howard (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very good. Dust Jacket Condition: good. First Edition. First Edition. Hardcover. 7 1/2" X 5 1/4". 309pp. Moderate wear to unclipped dust jacket, with perforated bookmark advertising Helen Topping Miller's Books still attached at front flap. Small tears to edges and extremities, sunning to spine, and mild dust soiling to jacket. Green cloth over boards, with upper board and spine lettered in black. Mild shelfwear to binding, firm and sound. Lacking front free endpaper. Bookseller ticket to rear pastedown. Binding is firm and sound. Pages are clean and unmarked. A presentable 1936 printing of this novel by Howard Pfaelzer. About Against the Stream: "Childhood training with an idealistic but impractical mother has made Mark Parow a misfit in the modern practical world. During one of his constant wanderings in foreign lands in search of happiness, he is aroused by the lingering loveliness of a woman whose portrait he sees in Venice. Yet when he discovers Sophronia, the original of the painting, and is completely enthralled, he cannot persuade her to marry him. From the sapphire lakes of Italy Mark's quest takes him across the seas to a final haven in the green hills of New England. Here at last he finds peace and contentment; then Sophronia again enters his life" (Front flap). "Born in 1890 to comfortably well-off New England parents, taken at the age of 10 for nine years' pleasant traveling over Europe with his mother, endowed with more than ordinary intelligence, Mark Parow seemed to be headed for a happy life. But his mother's comfortable system of education left Mark unfitted to lead a conventional American life. Her death and four years in an American college undermined his enthusiasm and self-confidence. Cashing in his small legacy, he dashed off to Europe and the war. After a dull interlude of work in Pittsburgh, Mark returned to Italy and fell in love with the portrait of a mysteriously lovely woman. Romantically resolved to find the original, he finally discovered Sophronia Terrel living in a villa on the shore of an Italian lake. The rest of the story deals dramatically with his twin pursuit of a career and of Sophronia. Mark's story, ostensibly written as an autobiography for only Sophronia's reading, reveals a sensitive, idealistic nature, eager for happiness but overshadowed by a dark destiny or hard luck. As a novel it offers several dramatic climaxes and a bit of a mystery. It is pleasantly readable, unsophisticated entertainment in sincere, straightforward vein." - The New York Times, June 28, 1936. …

First Edition. Harold E. Snyder dustjacket art. Young man travels from Italy back to New England when the Italian woman he falls in love with rejects him. Near Fine in Very Good dustjacket.