HERBERT, James. The Rats. London: New English Library. 1974. Small 8vo. First edition, first printing. Publisher’s dark brown cloth lettered in gilt to the spine with publisher’s device in gilt to front board, in the dust jacket. A very good copy, the cloth very clean, gently bumped to the spine tips and board corners, the binding tight and gently rolled. Some light spots to the textblock edges, the contents clean throughout with some mild toning from paper stock quality. The dust jacket unclipped (£1.95 net), spine panel slightly faded, the corners and tips a little bumped and nicked, but a handsome copy.
A high point in British macabre fiction and in the horror genre more widely, about a group of atomically bred rats the size of small dogs who can eviscerate a human in seconds, and do so with graphic awe, handled by Herbert with no sentiment of warning for its unsuspecting though delighted readers. Yet unlike other pulpy horrors of the period, The Rats can be read too as a social satire on the governmental abandonment of the British working class, rats having lived alongside humans in such slums since the beginning of civilisation, and this original idea of Herbert’s borne out of the author’s own experiences growing up in London. Lair (1979), Domain (1984), and The City (1993, a graphic novel), were successful sequels. Uncommon.
HERBERT, James. The Rats. London: New English Library. 1974. Small 8vo. First edition, first printing. Publisher’s dark brown cloth lettered in gilt to the spine with publisher’s device in gilt to front board, in the dust jacket. A very good copy, the cloth very clean, gently bumped to the spine tips and board corners, the binding tight and gently rolled. Some light spots to the textblock edges, the contents clean throughout with some mild toning from paper stock quality. The dust jacket unclipped (£1.95 net), spine panel slightly faded, the corners and tips a little bumped and nicked, but a handsome copy.
A high point in British macabre fiction and in the horror genre more widely, about a group of atomically bred rats the size of small dogs who can eviscerate a human in seconds, and do so with graphic awe, handled by Herbert with no sentiment of warning for its unsuspecting though delighted readers. Yet unlike other pulpy horrors of the period, The Rats can be read too as a social satire on the governmental abandonment of the British working class, rats having lived alongside humans in such slums since the beginning of civilisation, and this original idea of Herbert’s borne out of the author’s own experiences growing up in London. Lair (1979), Domain (1984), and The City (1993, a graphic novel), were successful sequels. Uncommon.
