Trefusis, Violet ~ Pirates at Play

First UK Printing : Michael Joseph, London : 1950

The First UK Printing published by Michael Joseph, London in 1950. 8vo., peach cloth, lettered and decorated in silver to spine, with publisher’s device to foot; complete in the original unclipped pictorial wrapper (9s. 6d. net), designed by Philippe Jullian; with line drawing vignette by Jullian to the title replicating the image to the lower panel; The BOOK with light spotting to text-block and endpapers; else a Very Good++ or better copy in the like DUST WRAPPER which is very lightly spotted and age marked in places; very slight rubbing and shelf wear; and one small closed tear to the head of spine. The Philippe Jullian wrapper artworks striking in the removable Brodart archival cover. Violet Trefusis was an English socialite and author who is perhaps best remembered today for her relationship with Vita Sackville-West; a long love affair which began when both were still teenagers, and which both women wrote about respectively; Sackville-West in Challenge and Trefusis in Broderie Anglaise. Pirates at Play was one of Trefusis’ final novels, though she continued to write memoirs and short pieces in French in the years that followed. In it, the young aristocrat Elizabeth Caracole is sent by her parents to Florence, where she meets a whole host of characters, including five brothers (each of whom falls in love with her), as well as their beautiful sister ‘Vica’, and all of whom jostle for each other’s affections. “Do you think that love has to be requited to be genuine? On the contary, it thrives on indifference.” Scarce in such collectible condition.

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