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Niffenegger, Audrey : The Adventuress: An Illustrated Novel

Harry N. Abrams, New York City, NY, 2006

ISBN 081097052X

First Edition / First Printing. As New in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. Unpaginated. The author's second novel-in-pictures. One of Audrey Niffenegger's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the British Edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. An austerely elegant production by Audrey Niffenegger and Joseph Regal: Regular-sized volume format. Pictorial hard boards with green velvet overboards and black titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Art and text by Audrey Niffenegger. Round green sticker pasted on cover. Printed on pristine-white, glossy stock paper to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Audrey Niffenegger's "The Adventuress". Her second illustrated novel. That is, a narrative told mainly in images accompanied by minimal text. "Follows the dream-like journey of an alchemist's daughter. After she is kidnapped by a lascivious baron, she turns herself into a moth and flees to the garden of a charming butterfly collector named Napoleon Bonaparte. The story of how the two become lovers, and how their affair ends in tragedy and transcendence, is told through Niffenegger's spare prose and haunting aquatint etchings. This Gothic romance packs the emotional heft of the world's great fairy tales. It will delight fans of the author's previous works and enchant an entirely new legion of readers" (Publisher's blurb). Niffenegger's Grimm-ly evocative tale has been favorably compared to the work of Edward Gorey. Quite apart from the fact that hers is a frankly erotic, proto-feminist sensibility (whereas Gorey was a deeply closeted gay man who was a lifelong celibate), the iconographic patterns, unusual perspectives, tensile lines, and gossamer atmosphere suggest a hypnotic and ethereal otherworldliness that is Niffenegger's own. An absolute "must-have" title for Audrey Niffenegger collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Audrey Niffenegger. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is now collectible. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still 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 scarce signed copy thus. One of the finest American artist/writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER AUDREY NIFFENEGGER TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 081097052X.

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