BLIND MAN'S BUFF (First edition - first impression)

First impression of the true first edition, in attractive dustwrapper. ***Very good in blue textured boards with black titles and printed black title-block on the spine. The boards are clean - just lightly marked. Head and tail of spine slightly creased. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Page block edges slightly foxed. Internally also very good with no inscriptions. Pages clean with no foxing. No creases or tears. ***In a very good colour illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of 12s. 6d. net. The dustwrapper is complete, with just a small chip at the base of the spine (not affecting the lettering). Edges of dustwrapper slightly rubbed and creased. The inside of the dustwrapper has been neatly reinforced with tape to the head and tail of the spine and inside the front flap - not visible on the outside of the dustwrapper. Light vertical crease to the front flap. Back panel of dustwrapper slightly marked and discoloured (being a matt white background). 304 pages. 190mm x138mm. ***'An Austrian business man by the name of Marx, a modest, meek man of middle-age, finds himself face to face with the bankruptcy of his life (and of his business) and decides "to do the honourable thing" and commit suicide. Instead, by a coincidence of dramatic and humorous events, he changes his mind and escapes from his life as hen-pecked breadwinner: he elopes with an extremely young, extremely attractive gamine called Marika. ***Here tragedy sets in: Marx's book-keeper, Kraut, as mean and miserable a character as any in the novels of Balzac or Dostoievsky, tracks him down and lures the girl away from him by means of a shabby trick - and what follows, Marx's vain search for Marika (a breath-taking search indeed), is the main theme of Blind Man's Buff. That title acquires a second, tragic meaning as he, a weary and broken man, finds her again at last - blinding himself to the development which has meanwhile overtaken the beautiful, unattached girl. She takes him up, looks after him - and pays for his and her own living with money, the source of which he will never know'. ***This novel by the author of "By the Waters of Babylon", "Scene In Passing", "The Inquest", "Children of Vienna", etc, is unquestionably his most ambitious effort. In contrast to some of his previous books with their political and topical backgrounds, this one is exclusively based on the passionate interplay of a set number of grandiosely drawn characters: Marx-Marika-Kraut-Kraut's wife. It is a novel in the tradition of the great Frenchmen and Russians.' (Quote taken from the front and rear flaps) ***A first edition first impression of this novel - very uncommon to find in its original fragile post-war economy dustwrapper which is very thin. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…