Faber Books – Part 3 – Garrison Keillor, Mario Vargas Llosa, Sylvia Plath, Wilma Stockenstrom, Charles Williams

The last of the Faber books. From here I will move on to general fiction in a variety of editions.

First though, Garrison Keillor of whom I have two books, Lake Woebegone Days and Radio Romance. Keillor is of course well known as a humorist and broadcaster of Prairie Home Companion.  He also released the charming and funny Songs of the Cat, a must buy for cat lovers.

Below are the books, cover illustrations by Pierre Le Tan

Mario Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer. I think when I acquired his War of the End of the World I was very taken with South American literature. These days I can’t even recall whether I actually finished the novel. Anyway, here’s the cover.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath was also published by Faber and was something of a bestseller back in the 1970s. Must read it again sometime.

I can’t say I know anything about Wilma Stockenstrom or her book The Expedition to the Baobab Tree, which I find in my collection, but apparently she is an Afrikaans poet and novelist. Ah the wonders of the Internet…

And finally, Charles Williams, who was one of the Inklings along with J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis. His novels are quite distinct from theirs being of a contemporary nature and are classified as supernatural thrillers. They are somewhat weird and most unusual, often featuring demonic possession being overcome by angelic intervention.

Here are three Faber editions of his books. I have others in diverse editions elsewhere.

Next – a diverse range of large size fiction paperbacks (with a few hard covers)

Faber Books – Part 2 – Lawrence Durrell, Ellen Gilchrist, William Golding, Nikolas Kazantzakis

To continue with Faber books, and Lawrence Durrell first of all…

I cannot claim to have read either Bitter Lemons or Tunc, or maybe I have, in the dim distant past, but here are the old Faber editions of the books in question, editions published respectively in mcmlix (1960) and 1969.

Two books from Durrell’s humorous stories of the diplomatic service, Stiff Upper Lip & Esprit de Corps, very funny books indeed!

Next Ellen Gilchrist, a wonderful American novelist and short story writer from the southern state of Mississippi. Her collection In The Land of Dreamy Dreams, which I have in a first edition hardcover, was my introduction to her fiction. It introduces the character of Rhoda Manning who featured in many of her short stories. But as I am showing only paperback Faber publications, I’ll get to that book later.

The Annunciation (1983) was her first published novel and Net of Jewells was published in 1992.

Victory Over Japan is another collection of short stories, won the National Book Award in 1984, and is quite marvellous from what I can recall.

William Golding is famous for his novel Lord of the Flies, which I have in a Penguin Modern Classic. The Scorpion God is a lesser known work, that no doubt I read way back in the past, and is set in Ancient Egypt.

Finally for this entry, two novels by Nikos Kazantzakis, well known for his novel Zorba The Greek that was made into an immensely popular film in the early 1960s and thus thrust him into the spotlight. I have only two of his novels, Zorba The Greek, of course, and Christ Crucified.

The last of the Faber books will be posted shortly and include works by Garrison Keillor and Charles Williams.