WILLIAMS-ELLIS, Amabel. Noah's Ark
WILLIAMS-ELLIS, Amabel. Noah’s Ark: The Love Story of a Respectable Young Couple. London: Jonathan Cape. 1925. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s vibrant orange cloth lettered in blue to the spine, in the attractive dust jacket designed by ‘HT’. A terrific example, the cloth clean and very bright, the binding tight and square, the contents clean and fine but for a little offsetting to endpapers. The dust jacket unclipped (7s 6d net) and complete, the spine perhaps a trifle darkened with a couple of very tiny nicks. A most pleasing copy.
The first published novel by Amabel Williams-Ellis, born Amabel Nassau Strachey—Lytton Strachey was her first cousin. Williams-Ellis endured the First World War as a VAD nurse, marrying the architect and creator of the Mediterranean-inspired Welsh village, Portmeirion, Clough Williams-Ellis. She became what she proudly termed a ‘class traitor’ for her ever-growing interest in Socialism and also worked as editor of The Spectator, all while writing a small handful of novels and poetry volumes before filling a void in children’s non-fiction books, usually around science. Much like her being and her life, the novel is somewhat ahead of its time, and criticises societal demand to find a partner and reproduce in the form of an intriguing young couple—spoiler: they eventually succumb, but W-E’s philosophising about marriage and indeed divorce was prescient. There is also a childbirth scene which again was radical for its time. Perhaps just as fresh and exciting is the vibrant dust jacket, which effortlessly uses three central colours to create a simple and timeless design. Scarce.
WILLIAMS-ELLIS, Amabel. Noah’s Ark: The Love Story of a Respectable Young Couple. London: Jonathan Cape. 1925. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s vibrant orange cloth lettered in blue to the spine, in the attractive dust jacket designed by ‘HT’. A terrific example, the cloth clean and very bright, the binding tight and square, the contents clean and fine but for a little offsetting to endpapers. The dust jacket unclipped (7s 6d net) and complete, the spine perhaps a trifle darkened with a couple of very tiny nicks. A most pleasing copy.
The first published novel by Amabel Williams-Ellis, born Amabel Nassau Strachey—Lytton Strachey was her first cousin. Williams-Ellis endured the First World War as a VAD nurse, marrying the architect and creator of the Mediterranean-inspired Welsh village, Portmeirion, Clough Williams-Ellis. She became what she proudly termed a ‘class traitor’ for her ever-growing interest in Socialism and also worked as editor of The Spectator, all while writing a small handful of novels and poetry volumes before filling a void in children’s non-fiction books, usually around science. Much like her being and her life, the novel is somewhat ahead of its time, and criticises societal demand to find a partner and reproduce in the form of an intriguing young couple—spoiler: they eventually succumb, but W-E’s philosophising about marriage and indeed divorce was prescient. There is also a childbirth scene which again was radical for its time. Perhaps just as fresh and exciting is the vibrant dust jacket, which effortlessly uses three central colours to create a simple and timeless design. Scarce.
WILLIAMS-ELLIS, Amabel. Noah’s Ark: The Love Story of a Respectable Young Couple. London: Jonathan Cape. 1925. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s vibrant orange cloth lettered in blue to the spine, in the attractive dust jacket designed by ‘HT’. A terrific example, the cloth clean and very bright, the binding tight and square, the contents clean and fine but for a little offsetting to endpapers. The dust jacket unclipped (7s 6d net) and complete, the spine perhaps a trifle darkened with a couple of very tiny nicks. A most pleasing copy.
The first published novel by Amabel Williams-Ellis, born Amabel Nassau Strachey—Lytton Strachey was her first cousin. Williams-Ellis endured the First World War as a VAD nurse, marrying the architect and creator of the Mediterranean-inspired Welsh village, Portmeirion, Clough Williams-Ellis. She became what she proudly termed a ‘class traitor’ for her ever-growing interest in Socialism and also worked as editor of The Spectator, all while writing a small handful of novels and poetry volumes before filling a void in children’s non-fiction books, usually around science. Much like her being and her life, the novel is somewhat ahead of its time, and criticises societal demand to find a partner and reproduce in the form of an intriguing young couple—spoiler: they eventually succumb, but W-E’s philosophising about marriage and indeed divorce was prescient. There is also a childbirth scene which again was radical for its time. Perhaps just as fresh and exciting is the vibrant dust jacket, which effortlessly uses three central colours to create a simple and timeless design. Scarce.