NICHOLSON'S FUTURISTIC WAR NOVEL, IN THE SCARCE DUSTWRAPPER.

NICOLSON, Harold ~ Public Faces.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Constable & Co Ltd., London: 1932.

8vo., brown cloth lettered in green to spine; contained, unusually, in the black and white photographic dustwrapper showing a bird's eye view of London (unclipped, priced 7s. 6d. net to front flap); THE BOOK a fabulous example, slightly faded to spine with light pushing to tips; very faint cup mark to lower board; a couple of dark spots to the upper and lower edges of the text block near the spine; internally very good, with some light toning and some offsetting to the prelims; THE WRAPPER seldom found in such complete condition, light even toning with some rubbing, creasing and nicking to extremities, beginning to split at front flap fold; a little more chipping to the spine tips, a couple of long closed tears (the longest 7cm in length) repaired internally with tape. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. FIRST UK EDITION, first issue in the second issue dustwrapper, featuring a series of reviews to the lower panel. A satirical novel of mistake and misadventure coupled with bureaucractic incompetence, written in 1930 and set in the 'future' of 1939. The plot centres around civil servants caught up in a maelstrom of misunderstanding, laziness, fear, pride and vanity that lead Britain into a hideous international crisis and to the brink of war. Beginning with the discovery of mineral desposits in Iran, the ensuing chaos spirals into rocket tests and the fall of the French government, and the work is sometimes classified as science fiction as well as mere fiction due to the technical weaponry assumed. Nonetheless, the book was in many ways prophetic of another world war which began in 1939 which, conveniently enough, Nicolson's plot also begins after the immediate aftermath of a Churchill-Mosley coalition government in Britain. An immediate success upon publication, it went into at least five printings, though is virtually unknown today. "The most fascinating thing about the story is how it dramatises the way human misunderstanding and human fallibility can have a disastrous effect on world affairs", one Guardian reviewer wrote in 2009, calling for the book to be reprinted. "The plotline about western powers scrabbling for resources in the Middle East seems horribly vatic." Scarce in the dustwrapper.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Very Good