London: Faber, N.d. [1940]

221 handwritten loose lined pp. in black ink laid in to a green folder, typed title label amended by hand.
A little browned, light wear to edges of some pages, but well preserved in a worn folder with a few tears and creases.

THE ORIGINAL FAIR COPY MANUSCRIPT OF CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS, HERE BEARING ITS WORKING TITLE MY FRIEND DOUGLAS. BASIS FOR THE 1948 FILM WHICH MARKED THE DEBUTS OF CHRISTOPHER LEE AND DIRECTOR TERENCE YOUNG.

A happily married young woman, a mother of two, travels to London with a secret. She's going to meet an old lover. An old lover who is dead. She's going to visit him at Madame Tussaud's, where his wax effigy is the newest exhibit in the Chamber of Horrors...

Corridor of Mirrors, a story of obsession, voyeurism, fetishistic cosplay and murder, was published by Faber in 1941, who describe it in the dust jacket's blurb as 'one of the strangest novels we have ever published: a book you will have to finish whether you like it or not.' One reader who liked it very much was Robert Aickman, the master of strange stories: his own copy of Massie's book is preserved with his papers at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and in his short story The Insufficient Answer (1951) the leading character pulls Corridor of Mirrors from a library shelf.

Corridor of Mirrors has had a much longer shelf life than the rest of Massie's output. The book was filmed in 1948 -- bowdlerised but just as bizarre as the book -- and gave both Christopher Lee and director Terence Young their debuts. Lois Maxwell was also among the cast -- coincidentally, all three would later find lucrative employment in the James Bond franchise. The film's cult following has done a little to keep Massie's name alive. (Massie's name is misspelled in the film's credits, where he appears as 'Chris Massey').

This manuscript is a fair copy, the text seeming to accord exactly with that of the published novel. There are occasional textual additions to the manuscript, and all seem to have been incorporated into the printed text. But two significant changes were made between delivery of the manuscript and publication of the book. Firstly, the folder's title label and the title page of the manuscript still bear the working title My Friend Douglas. (This has been changed by Massie on the folder label, but with the definite article). And the book's dedication was also changed very late in the day: the manuscript dedicates the book to the novelist John Brophy, but the printed novel is dedicated 'To James, Margaret and Julie, with my love'.

Massie's manuscript of his strangest, most unsettling novel, in an excellent state of preservation.

(VAT @ 20% is payable by UK purchasers.)