LLEWELLYN, Alun. Confound Their Politics. London: Bell. 1934. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s cream cloth quite elaborately decorated in red to the spine and front board, in the unusual dust jacket. The book very good, clean and bright with one or two very small knocks and nicks to the board edges, the binding tight and square, the top edge a little stained, the contents clean throughout. The dust jacket unclipped (6s net) with several small chips and nicks to most corners, joints rubbed, crease along spine panel with some loss to tips. Small blacked-out panel to front panel bottom corner, barely visible. Scarce.
A scathing book of political satire told via reflection of science fiction stories, each set in a fictional, uncanny world—”real places transmuted by the author’s fancy”. Llewellyn is known if at all today for his 1934 science fiction novel, The Strange Invaders, a reptilian dystopia set amid a Stalinist cult, the idea for which was likely formed through these stories and their own critique of modern politics. Llewellyn strikes predominantly at ‘the clod-hopping follies of rampant nationalism, and the dangers that follow the frenzied blowing of patriotic trumpets”. Some stories also target the paradox of democracy in the Western world, “the attempt to reconcile two irreconcilable principles” which holds true today. The author gives no answers, but the artist need not give any. In many senses, an early forewarning, albeit ineffectual, of the rise of Fascism across Europe in the 30s, and particularly the might of Nazism.
LLEWELLYN, Alun. Confound Their Politics. London: Bell. 1934. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s cream cloth quite elaborately decorated in red to the spine and front board, in the unusual dust jacket. The book very good, clean and bright with one or two very small knocks and nicks to the board edges, the binding tight and square, the top edge a little stained, the contents clean throughout. The dust jacket unclipped (6s net) with several small chips and nicks to most corners, joints rubbed, crease along spine panel with some loss to tips. Small blacked-out panel to front panel bottom corner, barely visible. Scarce.
A scathing book of political satire told via reflection of science fiction stories, each set in a fictional, uncanny world—”real places transmuted by the author’s fancy”. Llewellyn is known if at all today for his 1934 science fiction novel, The Strange Invaders, a reptilian dystopia set amid a Stalinist cult, the idea for which was likely formed through these stories and their own critique of modern politics. Llewellyn strikes predominantly at ‘the clod-hopping follies of rampant nationalism, and the dangers that follow the frenzied blowing of patriotic trumpets”. Some stories also target the paradox of democracy in the Western world, “the attempt to reconcile two irreconcilable principles” which holds true today. The author gives no answers, but the artist need not give any. In many senses, an early forewarning, albeit ineffectual, of the rise of Fascism across Europe in the 30s, and particularly the might of Nazism.
