And the Ass Saw the Angel
Price: $900.00
Hard Cover. London: Black Spring Press, 2007. Luxury Edition. Fine.
Illustrated with a limited edition hand-developed photographic reproduction of Julia Margaret Cameron's 1872 image Cupid Considering as frontispiece. Limited edition ("Luxury edition"). One of 75 numbered copies signed by Cave, this being number 57. Publisher's handbound black morocco, with front board and spine lettered in silver foil, book designed by Phil Baines, and marbled endpapers; in its original red cloth slipcase, with a screenprinted "A" across both panels. Fine book; fine slipcase, with a barely perceptible area of staining to the top left of the rear panel. With original purple prospectus, printed in black. Overall, a lovely collector's edition. And the Ass Saw the Angel is Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave's debut novel, first published in 1989. Set in a religious community in the American South, it tells the story of Euchrid Eucrow, a mute born to abusive and sadistic parents. Euchrid experiences religious visions, which lead him to commit a terrible act of violence. In the book, Cave writes in a unique style, his language characterized by him as "a kind of hyper-poetic thought-speak not meant to be spoken, a mongrel language that was part Biblical, part Deep South dialect, part gutter slang, at times obscenely reverent and at others reverently obscene." And the Ass Saw the Angel has been compared to novels by Southern Gothic authors, including William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. Nick Cave, frontman to the Birthday Party and the Bad Seeds, is an important rock and post-punk musical figure. Many of his songs incorporate elements of the Old South and the Old Testament. Item #NCA001
