WHEN SHE WAS GOOD, PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT, OUR GANG, THE BREAST: NOVELS 1967-1972 - Rare Pristine Copy of The First Library of America Hardcover Edition/First Printing: Signed by Philip Roth - SIGNED ON THE TITLE PAGE

Roth, Philip (Author) & Miller, Ross (Editor)

ISBN 10: 1931082804 / ISBN 13: 9781931082808

Published by New York City, NY: The Library Of America, 2005, 2005

About this Item

1st Printing. Signed. 671 pages. Published in 2005. Volume Two of The Library of America's definitive Collected Works of Philip Roth. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Printed to the highest standards on acid-free paper, utilizing sewn binding, closely woven rayon cloth boards, satin bound-in ribbon marker, and a page layout that is both readable and elegant, each volume is guaranteed to last for several generations of readers and collectors (despite frequent and regular use, the estimated life span of Library of America Editions is 1000 years; un-used, they will last forever). Each volume is scrupulously edited and annotated by Ross Miller. Presents Volume Two of The Collected Works of Philip Roth: "When She Was Good", "Portnoy's Complaint", "Our Gang", and "The Breast". Four ground-breaking works which show the range and originality of Philip Roth's fictional art. "The range and inventiveness of Roth's fiction is dazzlingly displayed: The somber and penetrating realism of 'When She Was Good' (1967); the daring verbal wit of his comic masterpiece 'Portnoy's Complaint' (1969), which made Roth a reluctant literary celebrity; the unrestrained political satire of 'Our Gang' (1971), his Swiftian takedown of the Nixon administration; and the fantasy of 'The Breast' (1972), featuring the debut of Roth protagonist David Kepesh as he endures a metamorphosis worthy of Kafka or Gogol" (Publisher's blurb). "One knows when one is reading something that will permanently enter the culture" (Cynthia Ozick). "Our foremost novelist since Faulkner" (Harold Bloom). Philip Roth was only the third writer to be so honored by The Library of America while still alive. Published in chronological order, the entire oeuvre consists of ten volumes in all and will surely be regarded as one of the "high spots" in The Library of America Series. Roth famously announced in 2012 that he has permanently stopped writing. Philip Roth died on May 22, 2018 of congestive heart failure, literally of heartbreak, at the age of 85. An absolute "must-have" title for Philip Roth collectors. This copy of Volume Two is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Philip Roth. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Library of America Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, have the bookstore's stamp, or are subsequent printings yet command hundreds of dollars. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Six of Philip Roth's novels were selected as among the Top 20 works of American fiction of the last 25 years: "American Pastoral", "The Counterlife", "Operation Shylock", "Sabbath's Theater", "The Human Stain", and "The Plot Against America". One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER PHILIP ROTH TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 1931082804. Seller Inventory # 17734

Bibliographic Details

Title: WHEN SHE WAS GOOD, PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT, OUR ...

Publisher: New York City, NY: The Library Of America, 2005

Publication Date: 2005

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: As New

Dust Jacket Condition: As New

Signed: Signed by Author

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

In this, the second volume of The Library of America’s definitive edition of the collected works of Philip Roth, published by special arrangement with the author, the range and inventiveness of Roth’s fiction is dazzlingly displayed in four extraordinarily diverse works.

When She Was Good (1967) is the trenchant portrait of Lucy Nelson, a young midwestern woman whose perception of her own suffering turns her into a ferocious force, “enemy-ridden and unforgivingly defiant,” as Roth would later describe her. A small-town 1940s America of restrictive social pressures and foreclosed opportunities provides the novel’s background.

The publication of the hilarious Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) was a cultural event that turned Roth into a reluctant celebrity. The confession of a bewildered psychoanalytic patient thrust through life by his unappeasable sexuality yet held back by the iron grip of his unforgettable childhood, Portnoy unleashed Roth’s comic virtuosity and opened new avenues for American fiction.

In Our Gang (1971), described by Anthony Burgess as a “brilliant satire in the real Swift tradition,” Roth effects a savage takedown of the administration of Richard Nixon (who figures here as Trick E. Dixon). Written before the revelations of the Watergate scandal, Our Gang continues to resonate as a broad and outraged response to the clownish hypocrisy and moral theatrics of the American political scene.

The Kafkaesque excursion The Breast (1972) introduces David Kepesh in the first volume of a trilogy that continues with The Professor of Desire (1977) and The Dying Animal (2001). The Breast prompted Cynthia Ozick to remark, “One knows when one is reading something that will permanently enter the culture.”

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

From the Inside Flap:

In this, the second volume of The Library of America's definitive edition of the collected works of Philip Roth, published by special arrangement with the author, the range and inventiveness of Roth's fiction is dazzlingly displayed: the somber and penetrating realism of When She Was Good (1967); the daring verbal wit of his comic masterpiece Portnoy's Complaint (1969), which made Roth a reluctant literary celebrity; the unrestrained political satire of Our Gang (1971), his Swiftian takedown of the Nixon administration; and the fantasy of The Breast (1972), featuring the debut of Roth protagonist David Kepesh as he endures a metamorphosis worthy of Kafka or Gogol.