SPARK, Muriel ~ The Abbess of Crewe. Signed by the author.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Macmillan, London: 1974.

8vo., black boards lettered typographically and vertically in gilt to spine with 'M' device at foot; the striking pictorial dustwrapper clipped, with the front panel showing a painting by Linnet Gotch; THE BOOK near-fine, a little light bruising to spine tips, with faint spotting to the fore-edge; THE WRAPPER lightly and evenly toned, with a little rubbing at edges, else near-fine. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing. This example signed by the author in blue ink to the title page. Spark's thirteenth novel, following the success of such works as 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' and 'The Ballad of Peckham Rye'. Set, this time, in a Catholic convent, the plot centers around the new abbess, who has to contend with allegations of deception and scandal. Viewed by some as an allegorical interpretation of the Watergate Scandal ('a situation not without its echoes...', the wrapper states), the book remains a satirical and comic work, written at a time in which electronic surveillance was at the front of public consciousness. "Muriel Spark is the first writer to demonstrate that Watergate and its attendant immoralities are materials not of tragedy, but of farce", one New York Times correspondent wrote. An excellent example.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine