Published by William Heinemann, London; 1994. 8vo. 369pp. First edition, first impression. Condition: Fine/Near Fine.
Bound in original green cloth boards with title in gilt to the spine. The binding is square and tight and free from damage or marks, save a touch of bumping to the spine ends and a knock to the top rear edge. Inside, the pages are clean and bright with barely a hint of toning to the edges and free from blemishes or damage.
The book is housed in it's equally smart first issue dust jacket, illustrated by Sarah Perkins. The jacket is vibrant and bright and, other than a touch of shelf wear to the edges, it is in beautiful condition.
In all, this is a lovely, smart example of this modern first by V. S. Naipaul. This work by Nobel Prize-winning Naipaul is an autobiographical work of fiction, drawing on the author's seven month journey traversing the continent of Asia. It is a consideration of the author's thoughts and study into inheritance and family history, to the interwoven strands of a complex history of "things barely remembered, things released only by the act of writing". His writing focuses on and highlights various points in the history of Spanish and British colonialism, from Raleigh final, shameful expedition to the new world, Francisco Miranda's disastrous invasion invasion of South America in the 18th century, the more subtle aggressions of the mid-20th century English writer Foster Morris, to the transforming and distorting peregrinations of Blair, the Trinidadian revolutionary. Each of these moments is considered through the eyes of the author, a Trinidadian of Indian descent who, during the twilight of the Empire, moves to England to escape the very history he is recounting.