Buy this book on-line

Phillips, Arthur (Author) & Shakespeare, William (Attribution/As Re-Written By Arthur Phillips) : The Tragedy Of Arthur: A Novel

Random House, New York City, NY, 2011

ISBN 1400066476

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 370 pages. The author's fifth novel. Arthur Phillips' finest achievement. 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 scarce. Presents Arthur Phillips' "The Tragedy of Arthur". Bids to be The Last Word on Post-Modernism by being contemporarily ironic about Shakespearean irony. "A long-lost Shakespeare play surfaces in Phillips' wily novel, a sublime faux memoir framed as the long Introduction to the play's first printing, a Modern Library Edition, of course. Arthur Phillips and his twin sister, Dana, maintained an uncommon relationship with their gregarious father, a forger whose passion for The Bard and for creating magic in the everyday leave lasting impressions on them both: Dana becomes a stage actress and amateur Shakespeare expert, Arthur a writer who 'never much liked Shakespeare'. Their father spends most of their lives in prison, but when he's about to be released as a frail old man, he enlists Arthur in securing the publication of 'The Tragedy of Arthur' from an original quarto he claims to have purloined from a British estate. As the authentication process wears on - successfully - Arthur becomes convinced the play is his father's greatest scam. Then there's the play itself, which reads not unlike something written by the man from Stratford-upon-Avon" (Publishers Weekly). After all, doubts persist as to who William Shakespeare really was or if he even existed. Arthur Phillips' play written in the manner of Shakespeare is dazzling, a copy worthy of the original. An absolute "must-have" title for Arthur Phillips collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed and dated (on the day of publication) in black pen on the title page by the author: "Arthur Phillips 4/19/11". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. As far as we know, this is the only such signed and publication-day dated copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the Art Seidenbaum Award for Best First Novel in 2002 for "Prague". One of the most brilliant American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ARTHUR PHILLIPS TITLE IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1400066476.

1
1

Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints.