A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME

London: Heinemann, 1951. Complete in twelve volumes, totalling approximately 3,000 pages; cr. 8vo; red cloth, spines blocked in black and lettered in gilt, edges of boards sometimes lightly rubbed or a trifle bruised, a couple of the spines lightly worn, A Buyer's Market damp marked (around spine and at bottom fore-corner of lower board); dust wrappers, designed by Broome-Lynne (six price-clipped and three with price sticker at foot of front flap), a few slightly soiled or browned (usually on the back panel), edges lightly rubbed and sometimes slightly split (heaviest on A Buyer's Market, which also has a piece torn from foot of backstrip extending into front panel, plus tape and paper repairs on the reverse, the torn piece replaced with plain black paper), The Acceptance World with the front flap detached and two pieces torn from backstrip replaced with plain black paper, minor bleeding of cloth colour at foot of backstrip on reverse of Temporary Kings; endpapers sometimes offset (heaviest in first two volumes), bookseller's sticker at foot of upper pastedown in second volume and faint stamp in same place in fourth volume, a little light foxing, mainly to edges of leaves; Heinemann, London, 1951-1975. First editions. Lilley A.8-9, 11-14, 16-19, 21-22. *From the library of David Levine, Sydney, with either his book label or bookplate on the upper pastedowns. Three volumes also have an earlier owner's label (Ralph Smith, Sydney) on the upper free endpaper. The dust wrapper for the first volume, A Question of Upbringing, is from a later printing, listing nine titles in the sequence on the back flap (concluding with The Military Philosophers, which was published in 1968.) The dust wrapper for A Buyer's Market has the wide flap margins attributed to the first wrapper issue, and '3rd impression' on the back flap, as described by Lilley. The Acceptance World is the state noted by Lilley (page 45) with 'Book Society Alternative Fiction Choice' printed in red at the foot.