The City of Falling Angels.

BERENDT, John [Erica Jong].

$400.00

Item Number: 142328

New York: The Penguin Press, 2005.

Early printing of Berendt’s suspenseful novel set in the decadent and mysterious city of Venice. Octavo, original half cloth, cartographic endpapers. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Erica – A fellow Venetophile, Best wishes – John Berendt New York May 23 ’07.” The recipient, Erica Jong remains best known for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying which became famously controversial for its portrayal of female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism. Written in the first person and narrated by its protagonist, 29-year-old American poet Isadora Wing, Fear of Flying was written in the throes of the Sexual Revolution of the 1970s and encapsulated the movement’s redefinition of female sexuality. In interviews, Jong stated: “At the time I wrote Fear of Flying, there was not a book that said women are romantic, women are intellectual, women are sexual—and brought all those things together… What [Isadora is] looking for is how to be a whole human being, a body and a mind, and that is what women were newly aware they needed in 1973.” The novel remains a feminist classic and has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. From the library of Erica Jong and Ken Burrows. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Darren Haggar.

Berendt's first book since his New York Times bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The City of Falling Angels reveals the truth behind a sensational fire that in 1996 destroyed the historic Venice opera house. Encountering a rich cast of characters, Berendt tells a tale full of atmosphere and surprise as the stories build, one after the other, ultimately coming together to portray a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting.