Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
SOPHIE'S CHOICE
by Styron, William
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine/Good Plus
- ISBN 10
- 0394461096
- ISBN 13
- 9780394461090
- Seller
-
Canandaigua, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Random House, 1979. Hardcover. Near Fine/Good Plus. Styron's fifth novel, the story of the relationship between three people living in a Brooklyn rooming house -- Sophie, a Polish Catholic concentration camp survivor; her lover, Nathan, a Jewish intellectural; and Stringo, the narrator, an ex-Marine trying to become a writer. The book won a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and was the basis for the 1982 film starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. First trade edition, first printing (as stated, with complete numberline). About 6 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches, 515 pages in red cloth-covered boards with author's signature in gold on front cover and gold lettering on spine. Dustjacket's graphic front panel shows author and title in different shades of red against a tan background with "A Novel" in black across bottom of panel. Back dj panel centers a b & w photo of Styron by Nancy Compton on tan background. Boards show a faint, narrow line of color loss on some edges. Text edges show a touch of soiling and two, tiny, almost unnoticeable dents on fore edge. O/w, boards and text are complete, clean, and unmarked in tight, square binding. Dustjacket is price-clipped and spine is sun-faded. Both DJ panels have vertical creases at fore edges where previous owner tried to correct for off-center spine. The DJ is o/w clean, with very minimal surface and edge wear. A not-perfect-but-still-very-decent first edition copy of this 20th century landmark novel.
Synopsis
Sophie’s Choice, first published in 1979, is a controversial novel written by American author William Styron, which follows the trials and tribulations of three people sharing a boarding house in Brooklyn. One of the three is Stingo, an aspiring young writer who begins his stay at the boarding house after being fired. He proceeds to strike up a friendship with a complicated couple–Nathan Landau, a Jewish scientist and self-proclaimed genius, and Sophie Zawistowska, a Polish-Catholic woman who survived Nazi concentration camps. Following its publication, the novel was banned or censored in South Africa, the Soviet Union, and Communist Poland. These acts of censorship occurred in large part due to the explicit nature of portions of the novel, and Styron’s reframing of focus on the anti-Semitic nature of the Holocaust towards a generalized evil. Though largely controversial, the trio’s twisted and macabre tale won the US National Book Award for Fiction in 1980 and was adapted into a film in 1982.
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Details
- Bookseller
- H.W. Gumaer, Bookseller
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 005829
- Title
- SOPHIE'S CHOICE
- Author
- Styron, William
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Good Plus
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 0394461096
- ISBN 13
- 9780394461090
- Publisher
- Random House
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1979
- Keywords
- MODERN NOVEL, FIRST EDITION, BROOKLYN, RELATIONSHIPS, HOLOCAUST, NEW YORK, RELIGION,
- Bookseller catalogs
- Modern Novel; Fine Literature; Movies/Film/TV;
Terms of Sale
H.W. Gumaer, Bookseller
All books subject to prior sale. All books returnable within two weeks for any reason. Please return by USPS (media mail rate) and note the reason for return. All sales subject to applicable taxes.
About the Seller
H.W. Gumaer, Bookseller
Biblio member since 2005
Canandaigua, New York
About H.W. Gumaer, Bookseller
H.W. Gumaer, Bookseller, has been serving customers on the internet since 2003. We specialize in modern American and English fiction and in mystery and detective thrillers, as well as art and art history. We also have a growing selection of mid-to-late 19th century history and literature. Nearly all our modern and contemporary books are first editions or otherwise collectable.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Fore Edge
- The portion of a book that is opposite the spine. That part of a book which faces the wall when shelved in a traditional...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- O/W
- An abbreviation for otherwise
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