Firearms : Pleasures And Treasures
by Ricketts, Howard
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- VG++/GD/ND
- Seller
-
Salisbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
HARDBACK, SHIPPED FROM THE UK* Edition: Reprint.* Date of Publication: 1967 (1964)* Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.* Binding and cover condition: Textured cloth with colour photograph to face, black title to spine & face. No bumps, minor rubs, spine worn. GD* Jacket condition: No dust wrapper. ND* Contents condition: PRIVATE COPY NOT EX-LIBRARY. B/w illustrated end papers. Clean, crisp, tight and bright with no reading wear, no marks to text, slight marks to top edge, otherwise no visible faults. VG+.* Illustrations: Colour & b/w photos, throughout.* Pages: 128 pp. text* Description: One of the Pleasures and treasures series. Copiously illustrated in colour and black and white photographs. Beginning with the primitive matchlock, the author describes the progressive inventions of the wheel-lock, flint-lock and percussion-cap and the development of the revolver'. Chapters are as follows. i) Gunpowder and Matchlocks, ii) Wheel Locks and Snaphaunches, iii) French flintlocks 1600-1700, iv) English Flintlocks 1700-1800, v) Duelling, vi) The Percussion Cap..* A NEAR FINE text copy with NO MAJOR FAULTS reduced to good by worn boards. No dust jacket.*
Reviews
On Oct 8 2015, CloggieDownunder said:
"I'm aware that the transition into adulthood is a difficult and sometimes painful one. I'm familiar with the conventions of the rites of passage, I know what the literary term bildungsroman means, I realise that it's inevitable that I'll look back at things that happened in my youth and give a wry, knowing smile. But surely there's no reason why I should be embarrassed and ashamed about things that happened thirty seconds ago? No reason why life should just be this endless rolling panorama of bodged friendships, fumbled opportunities, fatuous conversations, wasted days, idiotic remarks and ill-judged unfunny jokes that just lie on the floor in front of me, flipping about like dying fish?"
Starter For Ten is the first novel by British author, David Nicholls. Almost-nineteen-year-old Brian Jackson is starting University. He sees "reading English" as the opportunity to become independent of his widowed mother, meet girls, make new friends, and, who knows, maybe appear on University Challenge (something his Dad would have been thrilled about). He hopes his recently-purchased clothing, his professed hobbies and his conversation will make him seem cool, but knows he is at a disadvantage: "It's not that I'm anti-fashion, it's just that all of the major youth movements I've lived through so far, none have really fitted. At the end of the day, the harsh reality is that if you're a fan of Kate Bush, Charles Dickens, Scrabble, David Attenborough and University "Challenge, then there's not much out there for you in terms of a youth movement." and "When I say I'm interested in badminton what I really mean is that if someone held a gun to my head and forced me, on pain of death, to play one sport, and they were refusing to accept Scrabble as a sport, then that sport would be badminton."
His room in his share house will be familiar to many who experienced University during this era: "The room has the appeal and ambience of a murder scene; a single mattress on a metal frame, a matching plywood wardrobe and desk, and two small wood-effect Formica shelves. The carpets are mud-brown and seem to have been woven from compacted pubic hair. A dirty window above the desk looks out onto the dustbins below, whilst a framed sign warns that using Blu-Tack on the walls is punishable by death".
Soon after he meets the beautiful Alice Harbinson, also trying out for the University Challenge team, everything he says and does is designed to impress her. He eventually manages to ask her out on a date: "...I check my wallet for the condom that I always carry with me in case of a miracle. This particular condom ....has been in my wallet for so long now that it's stuck to the lining, and the foil wrapper has started to tarnish round the outline of the condom., like some grotesque brass rubbing. Still, I like to carry it with me, in the same way some people carry a St Christopher's medal, despite the fact that I have about as much chance of using the thing tonight as I have of carrying the infant Jesus across a river"
Even in his first novel, Nicholls demonstrates his expertise in capturing the era (fashion, popular music, TV programs, ) and in portraying the awkward, hopeful but hopelessly inept protagonist. Readers will wince at Brian's faux pas, cringe at his attempts to impress the girl and laugh out loud at his misfortunes and his self-deprecation, all the while nodding in agreement with his (perhaps naive) reasoning or groaning at his less intelligent decisions. Each chapter is prefaced with a University Challenge question that is loosely related to that chapter.
Nicholls evokes the mood with skill: "The four days in between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve are surely the longest and nastiest in the year- a sort of bloated, bastard Sunday. August Bank Holiday's the worst, though. I fully expect to die at about two-thirty in the afternoon on an August Bank Holiday. Terminal ennui". His descriptive prose is wonderfully original: Giggling, she prods me in the chest with the whisky bottle, and I realise she's very drunk; not gloomy drunk or surly drunk, but frisky drunk, playful drunk, which is a good sign, I suppose, but still a little strange and unsettling, like seeing Stalin on a skateboard". He can be succinct and wise: "'Independence' is the luxury of all those people who are too confident, and busy, and popular, and attractive to be just plain old 'lonely'". Laugh-out-loud funny, this entertaining novel is a brilliant debut.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Cocksparrow Books (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1190
- Title
- Firearms : Pleasures And Treasures
- Author
- Ricketts, Howard
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - VG++/GD/ND
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- Reprint 1967
- Place of Publication
- London UK 128
- Date Published
- 1969-01-01
Terms of Sale
Cocksparrow Books
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About the Seller
Cocksparrow Books
Biblio member since 2019
Salisbury, Wiltshire
About Cocksparrow Books
Cocksparrow Books have been selling high quality books for over thirty years, now solely on-line. We concentrate on non-fiction items and early edition fiction (including some soft-backs). Our book condition descriptions are fully detailed to give our customers the best information possible and we are always pleased to provide further information upon request.
Glossary
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- Bumps
- Indicates that the affected part of the book has been impacted in such a way so as to cause a flattening, indention, or light...
- Reprint
- Any printing of a book which follows the original edition. By definition, a reprint is not a first edition.
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Crisp
- A term often used to indicate a book's new-like condition. Indicates that the hinges are not loosened. A book described as crisp...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...