Golding ENDS OF THE EARTH 1991 Signed limited ed.

Title: To the Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy Comprising Rites of Passage, Close Quarters and Fire Down Below
Author: William Golding
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Printing Year: 1991 Signed, numbered first printing

Condition/Details: Bound in quarter cloth with bright gilt embossing and marbled boards, this volume is a scarce limited edition of three of the author's titles, including the initial novel, that was the winner of the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1980. Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature three years later, and the presentation speech offered the following characterization of "Rites of Passage": "...the drama is enacted in the microcosm that the author arranges on a ship of the line at the beginning of the 19th Century. The book gives a cruel and drastic description of social barriers and aggressions on this ship, with an underlying black comedy and a masterly command of the characters' various linguistic roles. The scapegoat - one of many in Golding's works - is a priest who, naively trusting in the authority of his office, tries to assert his own dignity. He is subjected to outrages, each worse than the last, himself taking part in them, and ends up in such a desperate situation that he dies of shame."This book is copy number 319. The volume is solidly bound with clean, bright pages. The book is now protected by a plastic cover. The book measures approximately 6.5" x 9.5" and contains 753 pages. Please note that a signed first edition of Golding's "Rites of Passage" is also being offered in this auction. Please see lot 254. Shipping cost (within the U.S.) for this lot will be: $4.50