Roth, Philip

The Breast

ISBN: 0030037166
New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972. First Edition. Hardcover. "The Story of the man who turned into a female breast." (front flap) The notorious novella by Philip Roth (1933-2018), the great, award-winning & prolific Jewish-American author whose works have been enshrined in the Library of America series (since before he died, a particular honor) along with his canonical contemporaries Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud et al. In this sixth of Roth's published works, academician David Kepesh changes into a gigantic female breast, as his literary predecessors Gregor Samsa in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis & Kolvayov in Gogol's The Nose turned respectively into an insect & a human proboscis. The Rothian protagonist Kepesh over-intellectually wrestles with his plight as macabre wish-fulfillment ("be careful what you wish for" as the saying goes...) as he/it succumbs to lust- the source of his wish as he was in the company of his girlfriend, Claire (interestingly, Roth would marry the actress Claire Bloom eighteen years after the publication of this novella). David Kepesh would return, in full human form, in two subsequent Roth novels- The Professor of Desire (1977, see our item No. 5004) & The Dying Animal (2001). Hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket (with $4.95 price & "0972" printed on front flap), first edition as stated on copyright page. A hilarious, silly-yet-profound classic in the Roth oeuvre, in its rarest original form. Book in very fine condition with only a touch of fading to edges & corners of burgundy cloth front, back covers & spine (gilt letters & graphics on spine, front cover completely bright & intact); slight browning, spotting to side & lower edges of text block; very light fading, spotting at red-dyed upper edge of same. Interior very fine with only tinges of orange from blank endpapers onto opposite blank white page leaves; name (one only) of previous owner hand-lettered in black ink at upper right margin of front blank white page noted above; otherwise substantially mint. Dust jacket very fine with only very slight rubbing, fading to front, back covers & spine; a bit of wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same & flaps. Very Fine / Very fine. [Item #5201]

Price: $100.00