Houghton Mifflin, 2003-10-07. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. near fine/near fine. Octavo, 9 1/4" tall, 360 pages, black and beige boards. A near fine, clean, neat hard cover with light shelf wear, binding tight, paper white BUT a touch of foxing to the top fore-edge. In a near fine, clean, lightly worn dust jacket, with the original price.

Synopsis

This beguiling first novel is a provocative romantic comedy centered on a young London calligrapher named Jasper, who is an engaging, intelligent serial seducer and a breaker of hearts. But when he meets Madeleine, a captivating but enigmatic woman who is his equal in every way, he falls helplessly in love. Vulnerable for the first time, he is headed for his comeuppance at last. Jasper is transcribing the Songs and Sonnets of that other great lover, John Donne, for a rich American client. As he works on them (revealing to us the fascinating art of the calligrapher), he discovers that these wise and beautiful love poems illuminate his own experiences -- of the difference between love and lust, of the play of truth and deceit between men and women, of the cost of constancy. As well as bringing modern London vividly to life, The Calligrapher is keenly observant of contemporary relationships and modern mores. Underlying its sparkling surface are Jasper's wry but heartfelt lamentations about the diminishment of our culture: the trivial masquerading as the consequential, the rising tide of ignorance, the triumph of the lowest common denominator. At once wickedly witty and deeply serious, sweet and cynical, romantic and reflective, this stylish, wonderfully entertaining novel is an accomplished and exciting literary debut.

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Details

Bookseller: Avenue Victor Hugo Books LLC (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 52659
Title: The Calligrapher
Author: Docx, Edward
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used - near fine
Jacket Condition: near fine
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First edition, first printing
ISBN 10: 0618343970
ISBN 13: 9780618343973
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Place of Publication: Boston
Date Published: 2003-10-07
Keywords: Fiction, novel

Terms of Sale

Avenue Victor Hugo Books LLC

All of our inventory is now 20% off as part of our Summer 2023 sale! See listing for discounts. Payment may be made by credit card through Biblio.com, or directly to Avenue Victor Hugo via PayPal or by check. Orders paid by check will be held for bank confirmation. Returns are accepted, in the original condition, within 30 days. We do not invoice businesses, institutions or libraries. No dealer discounts. No third-party drop shipping.

About the Seller

Avenue Victor Hugo Books LLC

This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.

Biblio member since 2005

Newmarket, New Hampshire

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About Avenue Victor Hugo Books LLC

Photos of any book are available upon request. Click the "Ask Seller a Question" link above to contact us. We're generally able to provide photos the next business day.

Avenue Victor Hugo Books specialize in first editions of the best in fiction, history, biography, poetry, drama, and essay. Our catalogue features careful, considered assessments of all of our stock. We are not flippers selling books by the pound. Instead, we try to limit our stock to books in a condition we'd be proud to place on our personal bookshelves.

For nearly 30 years, Avenue Victor Hugo Books was a fixture of Newbury Street in Boston's Back Bay, at one time holding over a quarter-million magazines and 150,000 used books. Awarded "Best Used Bookstore" multiple times by Boston Magazine, the store was a favorite of Boston-area authors and college students alike.

Since relocating to New Hampshire our shop has been featured on WBGH Boston News, WVCB's "Boston Chronicle," NHPR, and WMUR's "New Hampshire Chronicle." Avenue Victor Hugo has also recently been featured in "New Hampshire magazine," "The Boston Globe," UNH's "The New Hampshire," "The New Hampshire Union Leader," and "Foster's Daily Democrat."

Our store is open Fridays & Saturdays from 10am to 6pm in Lee, New Hampshire, less than 10 minutes from the University of New Hampshire.

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Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Fine: A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Shelf Wear: Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...
Tight: Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
First Edition: In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Octavo: Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...