Description: • For Your Consideration: • A SIGNED* HARDCOVER (Third Edition*) of: • “LANCELOT: A NOVEL” (FARRAR, STRAUS, & GIROUX, 1977) (HARDCOVER, *First US Edition, Third Printing) • BY WALKER PERCY *SIGNING NOTE: Inscribed & signed in black ink on the front free endpaper as follows: “For Michael [Surname], best wishes, WALKER PERCY.”• “The satiric DOSTOYEVSKY of the bayou.'' —ALFRED KAZIN• ABOUT THIS TITLE: • “PERCY’s novel is one of the most peculiar, shocking, and profound works of art I have ever read. The author never gives anything to us straight; instead, he forces us to divine meaning by inverting all the basic assumptions at the heart of the text. In the same way that LANCELOT struggles through life anxious and disconnected, so the reader, in a way, struggles with growing anxiety to perceive the moral conclusion of the matter.” —M PECK, THE USUAL SUBTEXT (BLOG) • “And like TAXI DRIVER, PERCY’s novel—released around the same time, of course—seems like an early analysis of the failure of the sixties. It’s the burn out, the hangover, the realization that the dream was just a dream, and that the business of reality is cruel and cold and dirty. Perhaps insanity is the proper response. There’s so much in LANCELOT I’ve failed to unpack: Its analysis of America–North, South, and West–its treatment of Hollywood, its strange gnostic tinges, its weird tangled and often colliding philosophies. LANCELOT LAMAR is an enthralling monologist, witty, severe, pathetic and sympathetic, simultaneously cartoonish and ferociously real. I’ve also failed to convey how funny this novel is—Percy’s prose crackles and zaps, zips and dips, turns into weird little unexpected nooks. I ate it up. LANCELOT was the first WALKER PERCY novel I’ve read, but it won’t be the last. Great stuff.” —EDWIN TURNER, BIBLIOKEPT• “Arguably PERCY’s darkest and most explicit novel, LANCELOT tells the complex and confounding tale of LANCELOT ANDREWES LAMAR and his descent into murder and destruction. Published in 1977, LANCELOT came roughly at the midway point of PERCY’s career and strikes a unique tenor when compared to his other novels. The entirety of the novel takes place in a small room in a psychiatric hospital where LANCELOT is being held. Within the confines of this cell, LANCELOT engages in a series of conversations with a priest-psychiatrist whom he calls PERCIVAL and whom he has known from youth.” —R. JAMES LISOWSKI, C.S.C., MARCEL STUDIES (2022) • “I liked it probably superficially the first time, when it came out, and I liked it in more depth this time. This time I had the advantage of forty additional years of life.” —MATT PAUST’S CRIME TIME (BLOG)• “With his tendency toward digression, LANCELOT can be a tiresome narrator, but in the final major scene of the novel PERCY unleashes his remarkable descriptive and dramatic powers and draws by far his most effective scene. Ironically, after [a nearby] film company has gone to untold trouble to simulate a hurricane, a devastating storm approaches just as they are finishing, and the novel’s major scene takes place in the midst of it. On that last night at Belle Isle, LANCELOT is under the influence of drugs that one of the film stars has given him, and his memories of the night are unreliable, at times obviously hallucinatory, but they are vivid, striking, and, in light of the characters involved, profoundly true.” —DAVID GUY, THE SUN MAGAZINE• “LANCELOT stands as one of his best and probably most misunderstood books, a mid-Seventies shotgun blast at American hypocrisy….” —INFINIMATA (WEBSITE)• “LANCELOT and LOVE IN THE RUINS may not be as perfect as his other novels, yet both contain profound wisdom and some of his most brilliant writing: perfectly rendered dialogue between Deep South peoples; truly rendered scenes of place; and prose that often rises to poetry.” —CHIP PREHN, THE LIVING CHURCH (WEBSITE)• “PERCY creates a caricature to test how far one can go before a simple alienation from the modern slides into nihilism. Like FLANNERY O’CONNOR with HAZEL MOTES (although more convincingly), he tries to view the world through the eyes of someone who has become irreconcilably repulsed by it. Certainty becomes madness, rightful indignation rots into evil: in a world untouched by grace, PERCY is telling us, only pain may reside, and only evil may obtain…. However, the remarkable ending makes clear that Percy believes…that redemption is within our grasp.” —TOM CONNOBOY (BLOG)• “Very bitter. And provocative. If one were conducting a symposium on the future of America, one would certainly have to invite LANCELOT ANDREWES LAMAR to participate.” —CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT, NEW YORK TIMES• MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR: • “One of our most talented and original authors…more of a philosophical novelist in the European tradition than a straightforward narrative storyteller.'” —MICHIKO KAKUTANI, NEW YORK TIMES • “He is a beguiling, uniquely gifted novelist who deserves to be read in order and in full.” ―NEWSWEEK • “Our greatest Catholic novelist since FLANNERY O’CONNOR.” —FRANCINE DU PLESSIX GRAY • “A very original cast of mind…unlike any other Southern writer.” —ROBERT GIROUX, FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX • “WALKER PERCY knows as much about how the people of the Deep South act and speak as anyone that I can think of. He knows what is limited, narrow-minded and even grievously wrong in the social fabric of the Old South.” —CLEANTH BROOKS • “THE MOVIEGOER is probably my favorite book and PERCY certainly my favorite author…. PERCY’s books are a model for me in that each of the later ones especially seemed to be a genre novel on the surface—a thriller (THANATOS), a southern gothic romance (LANCELOT), an UPDIKE-ean exploration of mid-life in the suburbs (THE SECOND COMING), a dystopian sci-fi satire (RUINS). I love these high-concept conceits that pull you inside, and once you're under, you find a novel so thick with ideas it's almost Russian. I don’t pretend to be in PERCY's league, but his books are a template for the kinds of entertaining, existential stories I want to tell. I have to admit that when my agent called with the offer, my first reaction was, ‘Holy crap, I'm a novelist!’ followed seconds later by ‘Holy crap, Knopf published THE MOVIEGOER!’’ —KEVIN GUILFOILE• “During the last third of the twentieth century, WALKER PERCY was a force to be reckoned with, as essayist, philosopher, vocal Catholic, and, especially, as a prize-winning novelist, often best-selling. (He was considered a first-class stylist.) Describable, I think, as ‘psychological gothic’ (and Southern, though he came to hold no truck with FAULKNER), those six novels are books of ideas, lots of them, none simple. All were academically examined and widely reviewed, usually favorably even when not entirely understood.” —JAMES COMO, THE IMAGINATIVE CONSERVATIVE • “WALKER PERCY believed he had a call from GOD to write novels that artistically engaged non-religious readers by creating a believable, fictional world in which the grace of GOD is evident amid a culture that ignores GOD. Fully realizing this readership would not want to be preached at, Percy still felt compelled to show the mass audience novelistically that Christian belief is necessary. Biographer JAY TOLSON believes that ‘PERCY’s art…implies that the only way out of this deathtrap is the mysterious workings of grace.’ TOLSON sees that PERCY’s novels corner characters with only one way out—faith in the biblical GOD…. PERCY’s Catholic Christian viewpoint gave him insight into what was wrong with the world and what could be done to fix it: craft novels aimed at arousing agnostic readers’ interest in life’s principal questions and in Christianity’s answers. With humor, satire, and emblematic settings and clergy, these novels picture a castaway combing the beach for clues as to where he came from and what his destiny is.”—RICH GRAY, CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR’S REVIEW • “Among recent novels, masterly and superior.” —JOHN ROMANO, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “THE SECOND COMING” • “What a pleasure…. His best book since THE MOVIEGOER…and among the most admirable American novels of the past few years.” ―THE NEW REPUBLIC, ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “THE SECOND COMING” • “A comedy shot through with serious observations…. This is a strong novel which satirizes both an easy, ill-considered Christianity and various clinical ideologies, defining its adversaries in modern culture clearly and taking them on directly. THE SECOND COMING treats two characters who are suffering because of their age's impoverished view of the possibilities of human life, and it sees them through to a full recovery.”—ELIZABETH MUTHER, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “THE SECOND COMING” • “WALKER PERCY has become one of my favorite writers on the basis of one novel, THE SECOND COMING. This lost classic is in-print, as are all of PERCY’s books, but no one seems to talk about it…. In this funny, beautifully written existentialist novel, WILL BARRETT is the anti-hero, a middle-aged lawyer who has retired early in New York and moved back to North Carolina to play golf and…what? He isn’t sure. Every sentence is beautifully crafted. I read this difficult book in a couple of days, because even though it is characterized by stream-of-consciousness and existential angst, it is very funny and, yes, a page-turner.” —FRISBEE: A BOOK JOURNAL (BLOG), ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S “THE SECOND COMING” • • For other details about this book, please see below. • TITLE: “LANCELOT: A Novel” AUTHOR: WALKER PERCY TYPE: HARDCOVER PUBLISHER, LOCALE, & YEAR: FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX (New York), 1977 EDITION: First US Edition, Third Printing* *RE: On the Copyright Page, the statement: “Third Printing, 1977”—with no later printings listed. PAGES: 257ISBN: 0-374-18313-9 NOTE: THIS BOOK is not an ex-library copy nor a Book-of-the-Month-Club edition. CONDITION OF DUST JACKET: VERY GOOD. Price is clipped. There’s a half-inch closed cut near the top corner of the front. Corners are rubbed. Spine tips are minutely chipped. Light wear along edges. Sides are lightly but persistently scratched & smudged—but still bright & clean. (Now protected in a Brodart cover.) CONDITION OF BOOK: VERY GOOD / VERY GOOD PLUS. Book is square & firm. Corners are fine. Edges are lightly discolored along the top edges. Spine is tight & uncreased with bumped tips. Spine-lettering remains vivid. Text-blocked edges are lightly scuffed. Inside front cover & front free endpaper are discolored along the top edge (please see photo). Pages up to the Title Page have ghosting lines. (Please see photos.) All the other pages are pointedly clean & bright—with no writing (other than the writer’s inscription & signature), no underlining, no highlighting, no tears, no stains, no foxing, no foul odor, etc. • SHIPPING NEWS: This book will be wrapped with care before being shipped in a cushioned & sturdy box. THANK YOU! ********************** /\___/\=•ᆺ•= “We believe it’s good business to be good to our customers.” *********** FLAPPINCAT’s HOUSE RULES ***********1. GENERAL TREATMENT. We enjoy treating FLAPPINCAT customers with honesty & respect & warmth because that’s how we like to be treated when we buy things on eBay.2. GENERAL ATTITUDE. We are grateful you choose to trust us with your business. We aim for that gratitude to permeate every part of how we engage with you.3. OUR DESCRIPTIONS. We describe every item we sell as clearly and accurately as we can. When it comes to describing condition, we tend toward being conservative. 4. PACKING & SHIPPING. We know from experience that items, when not thoughtfully packed, can be damaged during shipment. To avoid that real danger, FLAPPINCAT wraps & cushions your purchase(s) mindfully—and sometimes zealously—in a sturdy package. WARNING: In our zeal, we sometimes over-tape containers and you may need a penknife to unseal our shipments. NOTE: Though we often recycle shipping materials, we do NOT stint on protection. 5. OUR PRICES. We try to offer the lowest prices on eBay for items we sell. 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Price: 75 USD
Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
End Time: 2024-10-16T13:35:16.000Z
Shipping Cost: 6.5 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Seller
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Binding: Hardcover
Place of Publication: United States
Signed: Yes
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Subject: Literature & Fiction, Religion & Spirituality
Modified Item: No
Original/Facsimile: Original
Year Printed: 1977
Language: English
Illustrator: N/A
Special Attributes: Dust Jacket, DJ protected in Brodart archival cover, Signed by the AUTHOR
Author: Walker Percy
Region: North America
Personalized: Yes
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Topic: Literature, Southern, Louisiana
Character Family: Southerners, Louisianans, Christians, Catholics