The Spider's House
London: Macdonald, 1957. First Edition. Hardcover. First Printing of Bowles's third novel, set in Fez during the anti-colonial uprisings against the French. Crown 8vo (196 x 127mm): 384pp. Publisher's orange cloth, spine lettered in gold; dust jacket illustrated by Stein and printed in black, blue, and orange. An excellent example (spine ends bumped; price-clipped dust jacket, very lightly rubbed with lower panel dust-soiled), tightly bound and clean throughout. Miller A7b. Fine- / Near Fine+. Item #BB2746
Bowles set this, his third novel, in the medieval walled city of Fez in the Moroccan interior. The city had always fascinated Bowles. As a young man, he found it “ten times stranger and bigger and brighter” than Tangier. “I felt that [in Fez] at last I had left the world behind, and the resulting excitement was well-nigh unbearable.” The Spider’s House focuses on the city's orthodox Islamic culture. "In this tale, the center of attention shifts from two Americans, superficial visitors in Fez, to Amar, the illiterate son of an Islamic religious healer, who watches his traditional world fall apart in the conflict between the French and the forces of Moroccan nationalism. The title of the novel echoes a passage from the Koran: 'The likeness of those who choose other patrons than Allah is as the likeness of the spider when she taketh unto herself a house, and lo! The frailest of all houses is the spider’s house, if they but knew.' Ironically, the religious certainty expressed in the passage is eroded by the events of the insurrection. The devout Muslim becomes, like the American protagonists of Bowles’s first two novels, a nowhere man." (Literary Encyclopedia) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).
Price: $349.00