THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS Ursula Le Guin FOLIO 1st Edition
Item History & Price
romobooks
The first illustrated edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’smasterpiece, The Left Hand of Darkness.‘No single work did more to upend the genre’s conventionsthan The Left Hand of Darkness.’ - Paris Review
Bound in printed and blocked clothSet in Poliphilus288 pagesIntegrated title double-page spread and 14 black & whiteintegrated illustrationsPrinted endpapersPrinted slipcase with spot UV varnish9½˝ x 6¼˝Illustrated by David LuptonIntroduced by Becky Chamber<...br>Please Note
As this is a sealed book...- I am unable to confirm the printing number. I think it unlikely to be a first printing
- 1-3 are of the actual book, 4-12 are stock images
Described by Margaret Atwood as ‘one of the literary greats’and by Stephen King as ‘a literary icon’, Ursula K. Le Guin stands as acolossus in the field of speculative fiction. The Left Hand of Darknesswon multiple awards, including the Hugo for best novel, making Le Guin thefirst woman to win it; appropriate indeed, given that her extraordinary novelof betrayal, loyalty, love and survival was to change the conversation aboutgender for ever. In her introduction, novelist Becky Chambers – herselfnominated for both the Clarke Award and the Hugo – calls the book ‘a titan’, one that gave rise to new perspectives on what fiction could be.
A DANGEROUS NEW WORLDGenly Ai is an Envoy, a diplomat sent to make first contactwith inhabited planets. Winter, a world locked in a perpetual ice age, is aparticularly daunting challenge: its people are androgynous, only taking onmale or female sexual characteristics during ‘kemmer’, a monthly period ofchange and arousal. Struggling to understand the intricacies of a society whereanyone could be both mother and father to multiple children, Genly is sooncaught in the dangerous machinations of politicians and kings who care littlefor his life, or the potential life beyond their planet. He is left with littlechoice but to flee across a vast ice sheet, a journey dangerous enough for anative of Winter, let alone a human ill adapted to extreme cold. Yet withsurvival and desperation comes trust, and Genly gains a new understanding ofWinter and its people. ‘I was alone, with a stranger, inside the walls of a darkpalace, in a strange snow-changed city, in the heart of the Ice Age of an alienworld’ A UNIQUE ILLUSTRATED EDITIONLike the layers of snow, ice and rock that make up Winter, The Left Hand of Darkness is a novel of many layers. Le Guin’s lifelonginterest in anthropology and cultural diversity is the bedrock of every page, with chapters devoted to Winter’s mythology, oral history and folk stories.Winter itself, where the habitable stretch of land is always in danger of beingsuffocated by ice, feels utterly real – Le Guin crafts a world of lethal beautyand completely believable complexity. David Lupton, who provided theillustrations for the Folio edition of A Wizard of Earthsea, returns with aseries of sensitive and intimate black and white artworks. Le Guin herself wasclosely involved in directing the look and feel of this edition, with thebinding, slipcase and endpapers specially designed to invoke the icy atmosphereof Winter.
ABOUT URSULA K. LE GUINUrsula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) was born in Berkeley and livedin Portland, Oregon. She published 21 novels, 11 volumes of short stories, 4collections of essays, 12 books for children, 6 volumes of poetry and 4translated works, and received many honours and awards, including the HugoAward, the Nebula Award, a National Book Award and the Medal for DistinguishedContribution to American Letters. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) is her best-knownwork; it is the first book of Earthsea, which includes The Tombs of Atuan(1971), The Farthest Shore (1972), Tehanu (1990), Tales from Earthsea (2001)and The Other Wind (2001). Her Hugo Award-winning novel The Left Hand ofDarkness (1969) is also availabe as a Folio edition. Her most recentpublications were Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems, 1960–2010 (2012)and The Unreal and the Real: Selected Short Stories (2012).
ABOUT BECKY CHAMBERS
Becky Chambers is the author of the Wayfarers novels, whichinclude The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2015), A Closed andCommon Orbit (2016) and Record of a Spaceborn Few (2018). Her bookshave been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and theBaileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, among others. She also writes essays andshort stories, and lives in northern California.
ABOUT DAVID LUPTONDavid Lupton is a London-based illustrator. He studiedIllustration at Portsmouth before completing an MA in Sequential Illustrationat the University of Brighton. His work, rich in melancholy and the macabre, ishand-drawn and painted with only the slightest of digital manipulation andenhancement. Lupton has created work for many commercial briefs includingeditorial illustration, picture book design, music video promos and recordcover artwork. His previous work for The Folio Society includes A Wizard ofEarthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (2015), The Left Hand of Darkness by UrsulaK. Le Guin (2018), The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia byUrsula K. Le Guin (2019), The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by EdgarAllan Poe (2015) and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (2017).
Legal Stuff for International BuyersFor International buyers who choose Royal Mail instead ofthe Global Shipping Centre postage option: by buying this item you acknowledgethat the price does not include any import or other such taxes that may applyin your country, that you accept liability for any such costs, and that youalso accept liability for any delays or obstacles to receipt of the packageresulting from the administration of the import process by your country’sauthorities
I add new listings regularly, if you wish to be kept up to date you can click 'See Other Items' (under Seller Information) then click 'Save This Seller'
The first illustrated edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’smasterpiece, The Left Hand of Darkness.‘No single work did more to upend the genre’s conventionsthan The Left Hand of Darkness.’ - Paris Review
Bound in printed and blocked clothSet in Poliphilus288 pagesIntegrated title double-page spread and 14 black & whiteintegrated illustrationsPrinted endpapersPrinted slipcase with spot UV varnish9½˝ x 6¼˝Illustrated by David LuptonIntroduced by Becky Chamber<...br>Please Note
As this is a sealed book...- I am unable to confirm the printing number. I think it unlikely to be a first printing
- 1-3 are of the actual book, 4-12 are stock images
Described by Margaret Atwood as ‘one of the literary greats’and by Stephen King as ‘a literary icon’, Ursula K. Le Guin stands as acolossus in the field of speculative fiction. The Left Hand of Darknesswon multiple awards, including the Hugo for best novel, making Le Guin thefirst woman to win it; appropriate indeed, given that her extraordinary novelof betrayal, loyalty, love and survival was to change the conversation aboutgender for ever. In her introduction, novelist Becky Chambers – herselfnominated for both the Clarke Award and the Hugo – calls the book ‘a titan’, one that gave rise to new perspectives on what fiction could be.
A DANGEROUS NEW WORLDGenly Ai is an Envoy, a diplomat sent to make first contactwith inhabited planets. Winter, a world locked in a perpetual ice age, is aparticularly daunting challenge: its people are androgynous, only taking onmale or female sexual characteristics during ‘kemmer’, a monthly period ofchange and arousal. Struggling to understand the intricacies of a society whereanyone could be both mother and father to multiple children, Genly is sooncaught in the dangerous machinations of politicians and kings who care littlefor his life, or the potential life beyond their planet. He is left with littlechoice but to flee across a vast ice sheet, a journey dangerous enough for anative of Winter, let alone a human ill adapted to extreme cold. Yet withsurvival and desperation comes trust, and Genly gains a new understanding ofWinter and its people. ‘I was alone, with a stranger, inside the walls of a darkpalace, in a strange snow-changed city, in the heart of the Ice Age of an alienworld’ A UNIQUE ILLUSTRATED EDITIONLike the layers of snow, ice and rock that make up Winter, The Left Hand of Darkness is a novel of many layers. Le Guin’s lifelonginterest in anthropology and cultural diversity is the bedrock of every page, with chapters devoted to Winter’s mythology, oral history and folk stories.Winter itself, where the habitable stretch of land is always in danger of beingsuffocated by ice, feels utterly real – Le Guin crafts a world of lethal beautyand completely believable complexity. David Lupton, who provided theillustrations for the Folio edition of A Wizard of Earthsea, returns with aseries of sensitive and intimate black and white artworks. Le Guin herself wasclosely involved in directing the look and feel of this edition, with thebinding, slipcase and endpapers specially designed to invoke the icy atmosphereof Winter.
ABOUT URSULA K. LE GUINUrsula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) was born in Berkeley and livedin Portland, Oregon. She published 21 novels, 11 volumes of short stories, 4collections of essays, 12 books for children, 6 volumes of poetry and 4translated works, and received many honours and awards, including the HugoAward, the Nebula Award, a National Book Award and the Medal for DistinguishedContribution to American Letters. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) is her best-knownwork; it is the first book of Earthsea, which includes The Tombs of Atuan(1971), The Farthest Shore (1972), Tehanu (1990), Tales from Earthsea (2001)and The Other Wind (2001). Her Hugo Award-winning novel The Left Hand ofDarkness (1969) is also availabe as a Folio edition. Her most recentpublications were Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems, 1960–2010 (2012)and The Unreal and the Real: Selected Short Stories (2012).
ABOUT BECKY CHAMBERS
Becky Chambers is the author of the Wayfarers novels, whichinclude The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2015), A Closed andCommon Orbit (2016) and Record of a Spaceborn Few (2018). Her bookshave been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and theBaileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, among others. She also writes essays andshort stories, and lives in northern California.
ABOUT DAVID LUPTONDavid Lupton is a London-based illustrator. He studiedIllustration at Portsmouth before completing an MA in Sequential Illustrationat the University of Brighton. His work, rich in melancholy and the macabre, ishand-drawn and painted with only the slightest of digital manipulation andenhancement. Lupton has created work for many commercial briefs includingeditorial illustration, picture book design, music video promos and recordcover artwork. His previous work for The Folio Society includes A Wizard ofEarthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (2015), The Left Hand of Darkness by UrsulaK. Le Guin (2018), The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia byUrsula K. Le Guin (2019), The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by EdgarAllan Poe (2015) and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (2017).
Legal Stuff for International BuyersFor International buyers who choose Royal Mail instead ofthe Global Shipping Centre postage option: by buying this item you acknowledgethat the price does not include any import or other such taxes that may applyin your country, that you accept liability for any such costs, and that youalso accept liability for any delays or obstacles to receipt of the packageresulting from the administration of the import process by your country’sauthorities
I add new listings regularly, if you wish to be kept up to date you can click 'See Other Items' (under Seller Information) then click 'Save This Seller'
