First edition, first impression. 290pp. Red cloth-covered boards, gilt-stamped lettering on blue relief on the spine, gilt and blue stamped decorations on upper panel. 8vo. Cloth a little rubbed and rounded at spine tips. Upper text block edge slightly dust spotted. Internally neat, clean, bright and tight. Dust wrapper a little shelf worn but still crisp and bright. Dust jacket in an old and worn protective, removable clear film sleeve.
Coates, a respected travel writer, etches a novel of marriage in the grand style, set in a British dependency in the Far East, where Chinese and European ways of life jostle together in amoral confusion. His first novel, inspired and infiltrated with his knowledge of the Far East, it deals with great personal and moral problems from a highly unusual perspective. A lovely copy.
