Back.

GREEN, Henry.

Item Number: 115198

London: The Hogarth Press, 1946.

First edition of this novel by the author whom V.S. Pritchett called, “belongs to the mad tradition in English literature—Sterne, Carroll, Firbank, and Mrs. Woolf.” Octavo, original cloth. Very good in a very good dust jacket with light rubbing. Ownership inscription. Jacket design by Vanessa Bell.

Back is the story of Charley Summers, who is back from the war and a POW camp having lost the woman he loved, Rose, to illness before he left and his leg to fighting. In other words, Charley has very little to come back to, only memories, and on top of that he has been deeply traumatized by his experience of war. Rose’s father introduces him to another young woman, Nancy, and Charley becomes convinced that she is in fact Rose and pursues her. Back is at once a Shakespearean comedy of mistaken identities, a voyage into the world of madness, and a celebration of the improbable healing powers of love.