THE PAINTED VEIL by Maugham, W. Somerset - 1925

1925. [inscribed at length by Maugham] New York: George H. Doran Company, n.d. [1925]. Original maroon linen-grain cloth, with dust jacket. First Trade Edition (there were also 250 signed copies), published about a month earlier than Heinemann's London edition. This is a "steamy tale concerning the high contagion of passion and cholera" set in Hong Kong: a bacteriologist stationed there suspects his wife of adultery, and so takes her to a village infested with cholera in an attempt to kill her with the disease -- though he, of course, is the one who becomes infected with the disease. Two libel suits were filed while the tale was in serialization: one by people named Lane (in the book the couple's name was changed to Fane), and the other by the Assistant Secretary of the Government of Hong Kong (the locale was altered to "Tching-Yen," but not in time for this American edition).~This copy is in maroon linen-grain cloth (we have also seen it in reddish-brown fine-ribbed cloth -- identical in blind-stamping and in gold-stamping).~The volume itself is in very good condition (spine lettering quite dull as usual, a little rubbing at the extremities and general dustiness). Included is the scarce pictorial dust jacket, of which this is only the third we've offered in our 30+ years in business. It is in very good condition (minor edge-wear but virtually no paper actually missing, some cello-tape on the back-side of the top and bottom edges). We used to think that the top of the front panel was faded, until we realized that all copies intentionally have this fade-out. Perhaps the reason this jacket is so scarce is that its reverse side is entirely printed with Doran ads, which include two forms for a buyer to complete and mail in: the publisher was in effect urging buyers to destroy this jacket! Toole Stott A33b.~This copy is INSCRIBED AT LENGTH BY MAUGHAM, "For Robert Partridge | W. Somerset Maugham | In the English edition of this novel Hong Kong was given another name because the Colonial Secretary at the time thought it damaging to him." We do not know who Robert Partridge was, but Morgan, on p. 63 of his biography of Maugham, cites a copy of Liza of Lambeth similarly inscribed to Partridge (where Maugham noted that the publisher had required him to refer to Liza's midsection not as her "belly" but as her "stomach").