FARJEON, Eleanor ~ The Fair of St. James. A Fantasia.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Faber and Faber Limited, London: 1932.

8vo., bright red cloth lettered in gilt to spine; together in the wonderful illustrated dustwrapper (unclipped, 7s. 6d. net to front flap); THE BOOK evenly sunned at backstrip and edges of boards; a little bumping to extremities; light spotting to the outer edges of the text block and prelims; else square, and bright, THE WRAPPER wonderfully near-fine, with just some very minor dark spots to the lower flap fold, and some slight evidence of chipping to the ends of folds and spine. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. FIRST UK EDITION. Farjeon was predominantly a writer of children's stories and plays, poetry, though she also wrote biography, history and satire. A lighthearted, fairylike tale, 'The Fair of St. James' follows protagonists Laura and her husband Jimmy, who are visiting a French cathedral town. Passing through a gate to a field which advertises "Foire St. Jacques", they begin to move among 'the people of a Land of Dreams' including beggar who is the King of France, a waiter who has invented a drink that will cure broken hearts (except his own), and many more. A whimsical, nonesensical tale of pure escapism, even the dustwrapper claims that the story has "not a hint of rationalism...it was concieved and written in Cloud-Cuckoo-Land". A lovely copy, scarce with the dustwrapper in this condition.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Near Fine