Published by Jonathan Cape, London; 1981. 134pp. 8vp. First edition, first impression. Condition: Fine/Fine.
Bound in original cloth boards with gilt title to the spine. The binding is tight and square with no damage to speak of, save a little bumping to the spine ends and corners. Inside, there is a little toning to the pages, but otherwise the book is clean and bright and in excellent condition.
The book is housed in the original, first issue dust jacket, which has been clipped. There is a touch of bumping to the edges, but it is otherwise very smart. Jacket designed by Mon Mohan.
The Comfort of Strangers was McEwan’s second novel. It is set in an unnamed city, although the detailed description given of it strongly implies it to be in Venice. It was adapted to the big screen in 1990, directed by Paul Schrader and starring Rupert Everett, Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren. In 2010, Lucas Wittman wrote for an article in The Daily Beast, that cited this novel as one of McEwan’s best pre-Atonement novels, writing “McEwan perfectly captures the thrill of travel when one is divorced from familiar surroundings and the chance of something unusual and out-of-character seems possible. Of course, this being a McEwan fiction, the possibility is a brutal truth about how people find love in extreme ways.”.