Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh (1932) First Edition 1st Impression Vintage Novel

Description: Black MischiefWaugh Evelyn Published by Chapman and Hall, London (1932) True first Edition, published October 1932. Bound in the publisher's red and black boards, minor spine end bumping, a little fading to the spine strip. Corners sharp. Light toning to the pages, a few light foxing spots to the title and final leaves, else in Vg condition internally. Vg condition for the age. Black Mischief was Evelyn Waugh's third novel, published in 1932. The novel chronicles the efforts of the English-educated Emperor Seth, assisted by a fellow Oxford graduate, Basil Seal, to modernize his Empire, the fictional African island of Azania, located in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa [a thinly veiled reference to the then empire of Abyssinia, now Ethiopia]. The novel was written by Waugh whilst staying as a house guest at Madresfield Court in Worcestershire. The old nursery had been converted into a writing room for Waugh. The Lygon sisters, who after 1931 had the run of the place [their father, William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp, having been forced into exile under threat of prosecution for his homosexuality], posed for some of the drawings Waugh did for the first edition. When "Black Mischief" was published in 1932, the editor of the Catholic journal The Tablet, Ernest Oldmeadow, launched a violent attack on the book and its author, stating that the novel was "a disgrace to anybody professing the Catholic name". Waugh, wrote Oldmeadow, "was intent on elaborating a work outrageous not only to Catholic but to ordinary standards of modesty". Waugh made no public rebuttal of these charges; an open letter to the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster was prepared, but on the advice of Waugh's friends was not sent.' [Wiki]

Price: 124.99 GBP

Location: Norwich

End Time: 2025-02-07T11:23:48.000Z

Shipping Cost: 27.46 GBP