IDEAS AND THE NOVEL by McCarthy, Mary - 1980

New York City, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 121 pages. Book-length essay on subject. One of the most important books on the novel of the 20th century. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Mary McCarthy's "Ideas and The Novel". Succinct, scrupulous, and brilliantly argued critiques of the role, evolution, and fate of ideas in the novel. McCarthy re-examines the works of her literary idols, the great 19th-century novelists (mainly, Balzac and Tolstoy) and juxtaposes them with the works of ascendant and near-canonical 20th-century American writers such as Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. There is no contemporary critic actively writing, aware of the fact or not, who has not been influenced by the "Mary McCarthy critical essay", an acerbic, penetrating, and intelligent piece that sees through rubbish with a laser beam ("cast a cold eye", as one of her novels put it) yet remains hopeful about finding the elusive "Real Thing" (her fundamental, central criterion for great literature) . An absolute "must-have" title for Mary McCarthy collectors. This title is a late-modern classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich indicated its First Editions as "First Edition/BCDE" during the period 1973 to 1983. HBJ dropped "First Edition" and the appropriate letter or letters with subsequent printings. As such, copies available online are subsequent printings. A rare copy thus. One of the most important and influential American writers of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER MARY MCCARTHY TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0151436827.