HUSSEIN: An Entertainment.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn thus. [Complete number line 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2. The true first UK HB edn, originally published in 1938 by Oxford University Press.There was a 2nd edn published by the British Library in 1999.This edn,published 2000,HarperCollins Publishers,so this issue a 1st edn thus.] FINE+/FINE+. No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright, clean,3/4 wrap-around colour pictorial artwork (detail from a painting - 'An Elephant Outside A Palace', English school,c.1890) illustrated dw/dj,author's b/w portrait photographic quarter strip to rear panel,with brown+black lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Ubiquitous ageing/toning to both top+fore-edges - the top edges being the heavier and darker; contents otherwise bright,clean,solid and sound - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - would appear unread? Publisher's bright,crisp,clean, sharp-cornered,original,plain maroon cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain dark green endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn thus,1-292pp [paginated] includes 21 chapters; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages, author's foreword,title separator page,5pp b/w illustration by Jane Conway interspersed throughout the text and the book.
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'Hussein - An Entertainment' was Patrick O'Brian's second novel.
Published in 1938,when he was only in his early twenties,this marvellously readable Indian adventure was much admired,and compared favourably (as a gorgeous entertainment) to Kipling's 'KIM' by the New York Times.'Hussein' tells the story of a young mahout - or elephant handler - his childhood and life in India and his relationship and adventures with his elephants.
As a boy,Hussein falls in love with a beautiful elusive girl Sashiya - and arranges for another of her suitors to be murdered with a fakir's curse.The dead man's relatives vow vengeance.Hussein escapes and his exploits - which include snake charming,sword fighting and cross-border spying - begin. . . Patrick O'Brian is universally acclaimed as the author of the acclaimed Aubrey-Maturin tales and the biographer of Joseph Banks and Picasso (see rja1833 - Pablo Ruiz Picasso: A Biography.).His earlier novels include 'The Golden Ocean','The Unknown Shore',and 'Testimonies',as well as his 'Collected Short Stories'.
During his life he also translated many works from French into English,among them the novels and memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and the first volume of Jean Lacouture's biography of Charles de Gaulle.In 1995 he was the first recipient of the Heywood Hill Prize for a lifetime's contribution to literature.In the same year he was awarded the CBE.In 1997 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by Trinity College Dublin.He lived,for many years,in the South of France. He died in January 2000.
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