London: Secker & Warburg, 1967

8vo, pp. 214. Original green boards, lettered in silver to spine. Maps to pale green endpapers. Illustrated dust jacket, artwork by Bernard Higton. A fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with just a little wear to spine ends and slight darkening to (white) rear panel.

First English-language edition. PUBLISHER'S COPY, WITH 'Show Room Copy' HAND-WRITTEN IN INK TO SECOND FRONT FREE ENDPAPER. First published in France the previous year. This edition translated from the French by Xan Fielding.

From the estate of John Blackwell [1937-1997]. Blackwell joined Secker and Warburg in the late 1960s, when the imprint was still an independent company run by Fredric Warburg. He was a constant presence through the company's innumerable corporate takeovers, mergers and changes of managing director. Blackwell was literary midwife to J. M. Coetzee, Michael Moorcock, John Banville, Tom McGuane, Tom Sharpe and Louis de Bernieres, among many others.