Polycarp's Progress - Victor Canning
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1953, Hardback in Dust Wrapper.Condition: Good — in Poor Dust Wrapper. Edges of the dust wrapper somewhat frayed, notable loss to the spine ends and corners with the front flap archive tape-repaired at the verso. Gently faded at the spine of the binding. Edges of the textblock heavily tanned. Pages lightly age-tanned.
Signed by the author, without dedication, on the title page — without provenance.
From the cover: “When Mr. Finchley discovered his England many thousands of readers discovered Mr. Canning!. Here, my masters, is Victor Canning’s successor to Mr. Finchley — John Polycarp Jarvis! And what a man! When John Polycarp Jarvis took a day off from the office to celebrate his twenty-first birthday. Fate chuckled and Polycarp was precipitated into a future that was as variegated as an Eastern mosaic. Polycarp began a modern young man’s Pilgrim’s Progress. He left clerking to drive Red Dragons, forsook the earth for the air as the proprietor of the New Age Flying Company, and passed from market-square quack to become the complacent owner of Chessvale Kennels.
Polycarp, the impetuous clerk; Polycarp, the ambitious fame-seeker; Polycarp, a lord of Fleet Street; Polycarp, the lover — these are a few of the changes through which he passes.”
Size: 8" x 5½". Green boards with Black titling to the Spine. 350 pages.
£168.50