Description

EXTRAORDINARY PRESENTATION FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY AMBLER TO HIS MOTHER

AMBLER, Eric. The Mask of Dimitrios. London: Hodder and Stoughton, (1939). Octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in custom half red morocco clamshell box.

First edition of Ambler’s best and most famous work, an extraordinary presentation copy, warmly inscribed by the author on the title page, “To Mother with love, E.”

“Surely the most famous and possibly the best of Ambler’s many distinguished novels, A Coffin for Dimitrios [the title of the subsequent American edition] represents one of the milestones of espionage fiction and brought it truly and irrevocably into the modern era” (Crown Crime Companion, 31). This novel “marked a development in [Ambler’s] idiosyncratic handling of the revelations of a plot? This is a sordid world to which we are introduced, and its details are built up slowly, so that the life of a crook is revealed in a way which continues to hold our attention while demonstrating clearly to us the ruthless realties involved” (Reilly, 32). “In contrast to earlier British spy stories, in which xenophobic, romantic heroes defeated vast conspiracies to dominate the world, Ambler’s tales were of ordinary, educated Englishmen thrust by chance or curiosity into danger. Notable for its gritty realism, Ambler’s fiction was a major influence on writers such as Graham Greene and John Le Carré” (Britannica). Steinbrunner & Penzler, 8. Haycraft, 206.

Book about-fine with tiny discoloration to spine head. Dust jacket near-fine and extremities bright with only lightest edgewear to spine head. A lovely, outstanding presentation copy. Rare.