A "HILARIOUS TOUR DE FORCE"

NAIPAUL, V.S. The Mystic Masseur. (London): Andre Deutsch, (1957). Octavo, original brown paper-covered boards, original dust jacket. $950.

First edition of the Nobel laureate's groundbreaking novel, a "comic version of his own path out of Trinidad," in original dust jacket.

Mystic Masseur, Naipaul's first published novel, "is at once a satire on the roots of power that lie in popular superstition and apparent education, and of a figure driven by the forces he himself exploits" (Vinson, 1003). "A kind of fictional biography… Naipaul's prose style gives this novel an enduring and graceful appeal" (Dooley, V.S. Naipaul). Complex and subtly ironic, "Naipaul's amiable tale has been described quite accurately by Bruce Bawer as a 'brief, hilarious tour de force'… the novel also represents the comic version of his own path out of Trinidad through his education and writing career" (Paravisini-Gebert, Literature of the Caribbean, 161). Along with his many awards, Naipaul received the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature for uniting "perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories." Basis for the 2001 film by director Ismail Merchant, from a screenplay by Caryl Phillips. An English Library, 39.

Book fine; mild toning to spine, light edge-wear, faint soiling and dampstaining to extremely good dust jacket.