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Berendt, John : The City of Falling Angels

Sceptre, 2005

ISBN 0340840617

The wraps are slightly shelf rubbed.Internally clean.Tightly bound.[R.K]. Book Condition: Fine. Binding: Soft cover

1st Edition.

Berendt, John : THE CITY OF FALLING ANGELS

Penguin Press, New York, 2005

8vo 8" - 9" tall; 415 pages, Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket

First Edition

Berendt, John : The City Of Falling Angels

The Penguin Press, New York City, NY, 2005

ISBN 1594200580

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 414 pages. The author's second nonfiction novel. Now considered a contemporary classic. 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 John Berendt's "The City of Falling Angels". The second book, after a hiatus of more than ten years, by the former Editor of Esquire and New York Magazine, who was catapulted to immense national and international fame with his breakthrough debut, "Midnight In The Garden of Good And Evil". The city is Venice, which Berendt rushed to three days after the Fenice Opera House, whose legendary status is matched only by the Milan, burned to a crisp. Using this catastrophic event and its aftermath, Berendt deploys the same incomparable skills he showed in his previous account to capture the character of a place through its prismatic citizens and expatriates, all of them colorful, idiosyncratic, and fascinating. It is not too much to say that Berendt has so much more that is important and enriching to say about the inner lives of his impressive cast of characters than most contemporary novelists do. He also says it with grace, a keen ear, and love of people and what makes them tick. The Savannah of "Midnight In The Garden of Good And Evil" was redolent of Southern charm and cunning, the secrets and lies that held the fraying fabric of an old place together. However, Venice is not just another old place. It is The Old World itself, the city-as-museum. As a subject, it is a new and altogether different challenge for Berendt because unlike his "re-discovery" of the Savannah, Venice has been the central character of many great literary works across the centuries: Henry James, Thomas Mann, Mary McCarthy, Joseph Brodsky, Jan Morris, Ian McEwan, and Susan Sontag, to name the pantheon few, readily come to mind among modern writers. "Berendt tells a tale full of atmosphere and surprise as the stories build, one after the other, ultimately coming together to reveal a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting. The fire and its aftermath serves as a leitmotif that runs throughout, adding to the elements of chaos, corruption, and crime, and contributing to the ever-mounting suspense of this brilliant book" (Publisher's blurb). Berendt's debut stayed put on The New York Times bestseller list for four years, a record that no other book has matched let alone surpassed. For the last ten years, the author has been dogged with questions about what he will write next. Here, at last, is his tantalizing answer. An absolute "must-have" title for John Berendt collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in blue fountain pen on the title page by John Berendt. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. 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, Venetian 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 writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER JOHN BERENDT TITLE IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1594200580.

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