The Rapture of Lol V. Stein, Marguerite Duras — 1st UK Edition

Publication: London, Hamish Hamilton, 1967

Formatting: 8vo, pp. [vi], 138.

Condition Report: Near Fine; Very Good+ dust jacket. Publisher's original dark blue cloth binding remains tight and square, boasting remarkably sharp corners and bright, unrubbed silver gilt titling to the spine. The text block is exceptionally crisp and clean, displaying only the faintest hint of age-toning to the page margins without any foxing. The interior remains entirely free of internal markings or previous ownership signatures. The original unclipped dust jacket is notably well-preserved, retaining its vibrant, unfaded stark black, white, and red graphics on the front panel. There is some minor edge-wear and slight surface rubbing to the extremities situated at the spine ends and corners, but no significant tears or loss. A highly collectable, superior example of this elusive mid-century edition.

Catalogue Note: First UK Edition. Translated from the original French (Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein) by Eileen Ellenbogen. Originally published in France by Éditions Gallimard in 1964, Duras’s seminal psychological novel was introduced to the British market via this 1967 Hamish Hamilton edition. Interestingly, the British publishers opted for the translation title The Rapture..., diverging from the American edition (The Ravishing...) which had been issued a year prior by Grove Press.

This specific copy is particularly charming for retaining a contemporary review clipping from the Times Literary Supplement, laid in loose by a previous owner, which provides an authentic glimpse into the novel's contemporary critical reception. Also of bibliographic note is the very early adoption of the Standard Book Number (SBN) system visible on the copyright page, a system only just introduced in the UK in 1967. First UK editions of Duras's mid-career works, especially those featuring such unblemished, striking dust jacket art, are increasingly scarce on the open market.

Marguerite Duras’s haunting and hypnotic novel, The Rapture of Lol V. Stein, traces the enigmatic descent of its titular protagonist following an intensely traumatic rejection. At a society ball, Lola Valerie Stein watches in a state of fascinated, eerie paralysis as her fiancé abandons her for an older, captivatingly beautiful woman. The sudden shock sends Lol into a period of profound detachment, madness, and eventual convalescence. Years later, married and seemingly settled in another town, she returns to the scene of her trauma, drawn into a complex voyeuristic obsession with her old friend Tatiana and Tatiana's lover. Duras's masterful, sparse prose brilliantly dissects the fragments of memory and desire, solidifying her reputation as one of the most innovative voices in twentieth-century modernist literature.