LITTLE MAN WHAT NOW (First UK edition - later printing - in the scarce original pre-war dustwrapper)

A later printing of the first UK edition, published in February 1938. The book was something of a bestseller, being published by Putnam in the UK in March 1933, and then reprinted four times in the same year, with a second edition following in May 1934, with two more reprints in 1935, and then this printing in February 1938. Translated from the German by Eric Sutton. ***Very good in blue cloth-covered boards with black titles to the spine. The cloth is nice and clean and unmarked. Edges of boards and top and tail of spine slightly creased. Lower corners also slightly creased. The colour of the cloth has faded slightly around the spine, and the dustwrapper design has left an interesting impression of two shadow figures on the spine (due to exposure to sunlight). No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Spine tight without any fraying or tears. Internally also very good. There is some internal foxing to the paper, which affects the page block edges, and the first and last few pages. With a contemporary gift inscription to the front free endpaper 'From: Gordon & Hilda, Xmas 1941'. No creases or tears. ***In a very good colour-illustrated dustwrapper, which is beautifully preserved and intact. The extremities of the dustwrapper are slightly rubbed and creased. The spine of the dustwrapper is slightly browned. No tears. The original owner (or those who gave the book as a gift) has carefully excised the printed price from the front flap, leaving a small cut-out square. No chips or tears. ***190mm x 135mm. 441 pages. ***'"Little Man What Now" is the book that earned Hans Fallada his international reputation. The little man, John Pinneberg, and his wife, Bunny, two simple souls, struggle bravely in a world of diminishing returns and increasing unemployment. They manage to maintain their high spirits in anxiety and adversity. We love them and their baby, their extravagances and economies. They speak for their generation.' ***'It is vital, charming, humorous, pathetic. And it succeeds in making the reader feel how universal it is.' Gerald Gould, in the Observer. ***'I prophesy that it will be enormously successful. Written out of the conviction that there is a good life to be lived.' J. B. Priestley (Quote and review quotes taken from the inside front flap of the dustwrapper) ***Hans Fallada was one of the best-known German writers of the twentieth century. Born in 1893 in Greifswald, north-east Germany, as Rudolf Wilhelm Adolf Ditzen, he took his pen-name from a Brothers Grimm fairytale. His most famous works include the novels "Little Man, What Now?" and "The Drinker". Fallada died in 1947 in Berlin.' (Wiki) ***A pre-war reprinting of the first UK edition, in its original dustwrapper, in nice, bright condition. UK published editions of Fallada's pre-war books are seldom found in their original dustwrappers now. A scarce item. ***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. …