The Making of the Representative for Planet 8: Canopus in Argos

Lessing, Doris

ISBN 10: 0224020080 / ISBN 13: 9780224020084

Published by Jonathan Cape Ltd, London, 1982

About this Item

First edition hard cover, in very good condition, with unclipped dust jacket in good condition. From the collection of W.L. Webb, the Guardian's literary editor for many years. General shelf and handling wear, including tanning, creasing and wear to DJ cover, edges, corners and folds. Within, pages are tightly bound, and content is unmarked. CN.

Seller Inventory # 547536

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Making of the Representative for Planet 8: Canopus in Argos
• Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, London
• Publication Date: 1982
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224020080
• ISBN 13: 9780224020084
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Book Type: Used
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science-Fiction & Fantasy

About this title

Synopsis

Very good 1st edition hardcover in like dust jacket; corner clipped, but publisher's 9.95 sticker. From Cape director's office (TM) RB

From the Back Cover

'The Making of the Representative for Planet 8' is the fourth volume in Doris Lessing's celebrated space fiction series, 'Canopus in Argos: Archives'. In this interlinked quintet of novels, she creates a new, extraordinary cosmos where the fate of the Earth is influenced by the rivalries and interactions of three powerful galactic empires, Canopus, Sirius and their enemy, Puttiora. Blending myth, fable and allegory, Doris Lessing's astonishing visionary creation both reflects and redefines the history of our own world from its earliest beginnings to an inevitable, tragic self-destruction.

'The Making of the Representative for Planet 8' tells the story of the inhabitants of a remote outpost of the Canopean empire. Harmonious, serene and blessed with a tropical climate, the planet's future is threatened by an incipient Ice Age. As the first snowflakes begin to fall and the struggle for survival begins, Doeg, a trusted representative reporting to the leaders of Canopus, begins to record the downfall of his race.

'The Making of the Representative for Planet 8' has been made into an opera by Philip Glass.

"Doris Lessing's descriptions of the landscape are superb: the accounts of the coldness are spectacular. It is hard not to see in this ice age and in the hopes held out and then betrayed, a metaphor of our own times."
HILARY BAILEY, 'Guardian'

"The extraordinary way in which Planet 8 is transmogrified from a happy world bathed in sunshine to the site of the New Ice Age came over as if set down in a Bible. The building of the huge black wall, the crime and fighting as glaciers and snow spread, all combine in sweep and detail to form an unforgettable picture."
MARTYN GOFF, 'Daily Telegraph'