Very elusive with the wrapper

Sackville West, Edward ~ The Ruin : A Gothic Novel

First UK Printing : William Heinemann Ltd., London : 1926

First UK Printing published by William Heinemann Ltd., London in 1926. 8vo., burgundy cloth, upper board ruled in blind; spine lettered and ruled in gilt; Heinemann device in blind to lower board; blue paper wrapper ruled and lettered in red (priced 7s. 6d. net to spine); Printed musical notation by R. Strauss facing title; Ex Libris bookplate of Norman F. H. Freudenthal to front paste-down; THE BOOK, a near fine copy, lightly pushed and sunned to the spine tips. Light toning to text-block. Free of inscriptions and a very fresh copy ; in the Very Good++ WRAPPER , toned along folds and spine; with one small water stain to head. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition. The scarce second novel by Edward Sackville West, and described by himself as a ‘gothic tale’ which follows an aristocratic family living in a large, rambling house in Kent. There, four siblings with a smorgasbord of complex and tortured relationships are parented by an absent mother and a reclusive father, the latter who locks himself in a wing of the house and plays piano music for hours of the day. A series of emotive events occur when two visitors arrive - Marcus, a friend from Oxford, and Antonia, who sets off somewhat of a love triangle between Nigel and his sister Ariadne. The book was purportedly held from publication due to its characters bearing too true a resemblance to real life individuals. While the basis for the setting is likely Knole, the home to the Sackville-Wests for over four hundred years, Marcus is claimed to be Jack McDougal, an undergraduate at New College and later Evelyn Waugh’s publisher at Chapman and Hall, with whom Sackville-West had had an affair. Denzil is likely based on the author himself, the youngest and most vulnerable of the siblings.

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