THE EVENINGS: A WINTER'S TALE - Rare Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing: With Bonus Copy of "Childhood: Two Novellas" First Edition

Reve, Gerard (Translated by Sam Garrett)

ISBN 10: 1782271783 / ISBN 13: 9781782271789

Published by London, England: Pushkin Press, 2016, 2017

About this Item

1st Printing. 320 pages. Published in 2016. The author's breakthrough novel, and masterpiece. One of the greatest novels of the 20th century. The first appearance of the title in English and in the United Kingdom. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the American Edition, which was published one year later. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents, in its First Edition format, Gerard Reve's "De Avonden" in a felicitous and acclaimed translation by Sam Garrett. Better (very) late than never: First published in 1947, during the bleak postwar years, or about seventy years ago (as of 2016 release date), here, at long last, the masterwork that the Dutch have been telling us about. "Twenty-three-year-old Frits - office worker, daydreamer, teller of inappropriate jokes - finds life absurd and inexplicable. He lives with his parents, who drive him mad. He has terrible, disturbing dreams of death and destruction. Sometimes, he talks to a toy rabbit. This is the story of ten evenings in Frits' life at the end of December, as he drinks, smokes, sees friends, aimlessly wanders the gloomy city street, and tries to make sense of the minutes, hours, and days that stretch before him. Takes the tiny, quotidian triumphs and heartbreaks of our everyday lives and turns them into a work of profound beauty" (Publisher's blurb). Complements, even expands upon - but does not surpass - the somewhat brighter, wittier, and heartbreakingly beautiful "Amsterdam Stories" of Nescio, the Dutch Master who likewise proposed that the only substantial and appropriate response to modern life is dedicated non-conformism, as a vocation in and of itself. An absolute "must-have" title for Gerard Reve collectors. This title is a great book. It comes with a fine copy of Gerard Reve's "Childhood: Two Novellas" as a bonus and necessary supplement. This is one of very few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (British) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Precedes and should NOT be confused with the American Edition, which was published one year later. A rare copy thus. One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A fine collectible set. ISBN 1782271783.

Seller Inventory # 23797

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE EVENINGS: A WINTER'S TALE - Rare Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing: With Bonus Copy of "Childhood: Two Novellas" First Edition
• Publisher: London, England: Pushkin Press, 2016
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1782271783
• ISBN 13: 9781782271789
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: no

About this title

Synopsis

'I work in an office. I take cards out of a file. Once I have taken them out, I put them back in again. That is it.'

Twenty-three-year-old Frits - office worker, daydreamer, teller of inappropriate jokes - finds life absurd and inexplicable. He lives with his parents, who drive him mad. He has terrible, disturbing dreams of death and destruction. Sometimes he talks to a toy rabbit.

This is the story of ten evenings in Frits's life at the end of December, as he drinks, smokes, sees friends, aimlessly wanders the gloomy city streets and tries to make sense of the minutes, hours and days that stretch before him.

Darkly funny and mesmerising, The Evenings takes the tiny, quotidian triumphs and heartbreaks of our everyday lives and turns them into a work of brilliant wit and profound beauty.

"The funniest, most exhilarating novel about boredom ever written. If The Evenings had appeared in English in the 1950s, it would have become every bit as much a classic asOn the Road and The Catcher in the Rye." Herman Koch, author of The Dinner

"Unlike John Williams, Gerard Reve's work was critically acclaimed and sold exceptionally well during his lifetime. But, just like Stoner, The Evenings is brilliantly written, and has a maximum impact on the reader's soul." Oscar van Gelderen, the Dutch publisher who rediscovered John Williams's Stoner

"Very funny and strange... Reve is a writer who may yet 'catch on' in the Anglophone world" Lydia Davis, winner of the Man Booker International Prize

Gerard Reve (1923-2006) is considered one of the greatest post-war Dutch authors, and was also the first openly gay writer in the country's history. A complicated and controversial character, Reve is also hugely popular and critically acclaimed- his 1947 debut The Evenings was chosen as one of the nation's 10 favourite books by the readers of a leading Dutch newspaper while the Society of Dutch Literature ranked it as the Netherlands' best novel of all time.

About the Author

SAM GARRETT has translated some 50 novels and works of nonfiction. He has won prizes and appeared on shortlists for some of the world's most prestigious literary awards, and is the only translator to have twice won the British Society of Authors' Vondel Prize for Dutch-English translation.