With The Extremely Scarce Wrapper

Lewis, C. S. ~ Perelandra

The Bodley Head, London : 1943

The First UK printing published by The Bodley Head, London in 1943. 8vo., light blue cloth, lettered in gilt to spine; together in the neatly-clipped wrapper (still retaining the price of '8s. 6d. net' to the front flap), with illustration in blue and yellow; The BOOK is in Very Good++ condition ; spine sunned at tips and also at the area on the spine corresponding to the missing wrapper section; light spotting to the fore-edge, occasionally extending to margins/prelims; Some dulling of the gilt to the spine. THE WRAPPER, seldom found at all, here Good++ only, mostly due to the portion of approximately 1/3 of loss to the spine, spine also beginning to split along edges, with nicks, chips and short closed tears to edges and folds. However the front and back covers are essential all there. The B. Cowell wrapper artwork remains striking in the removable Brodart archival Mylar cover. The second book in C. S. Lewis's 'Space Trilogy', which follows a philologist (Elwin Ransom) as he travels across space, and the adventures he encounters along the way. The first book, 'Out of the Silent Planet' was published in 1938. In it, Ransom is kidnapped and transported to an alien planet covered in gold and strange humanoid beings. Lewis even introduces himself as a character in his own plot, where he corresponds with Ransom regarding a Latin word in a medieval Neoplatonist text and together they forge a plot to overcome the evil forces Ransom encounters on the planet. This present text, Perelandra, was published almost five years later. This time set on Venus, it reintroduces Lewis as a narrator, and recounts Ransom's adventures on the water planet, in which he meets floating islands of edible plants, a green-skinned human queen, and the return of the demon-possessed character of Weston. The final work in the trilogy, 'That Hideous Strength', was released in 1945, and is decidedly dystopian in theme. Likely inspired by the recent events of the Second World War, it is set in the more familiar environment of Earth - though together with a host of sinister characters. Predominantly fantastical in theme, all of the books include classical and mythological references, with many of the names reportedly inspired by J .R. R. Tolkien's elfish language used in his 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. Lewis himself also cited Haldane and Wells as being highly influential in the trilogy's creation, both of whom "seemed to take the idea of [space] travel seriously". "I like the whole interplanetary ideas as a mythology and simply wished to conquer for my own (Christian) p[oin]t of view what has always hitherto been used by the opposite side. I think H. G. Wells's First Men in the Moon the best of the sort I have read…" he wrote in a letter to a friend at the time. It is also reported that the books were written after a discussion between Lewis and Tolkien, in which it was decided that they would each compose a story based on 'true myth': Lewis would write a fantasy novel, and Tolkien a time-travel one. Only Lewis's made it to fruition, Tolkien's only appearing in fragmentary form in 'The Lost Road and other writings' (1987) edited by his son Christopher. Lewis believed that 'popular science' was simply another word for the mythology of his era, and he endeavored to make that mythology 'the medium of spiritual imagination' and 'to exorcise the evil and ugly fantasies which such material is already attracting to itself' (Dustwrapper). Inspired of course by his abiding Christianity (and including biblical references throughout the works), the series also incorporates a series of strange, mythical creatures, struggles of good over evil, disembodied heads, mermaids, wizards, and much more. It remains one of his most fascinating, controversial and curious works. Extremely carce to find in any collectible condition, especially so with a wrapper.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good ++
JACKET: Good++