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Ingalls, Rachel : Binstead's Safari

Faber & Faber, London, England, 1983

ISBN 057113016X

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 221 pages. The author's fourth novella. Now considered a late-modern classic. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Rachell Ingalls' "Binstead's Safari". Her "Africa" novel, set in a lyrically evoked, imaginary Africa, and philosophically, her most unusual (and somewhat underrated) creation. Even more so than in "Mrs. Caliban", she explores in "Binstead's Safari" the felt and real connection human beings have with their animal - as opposed to human - nature, their repressed yet deep ties with the animal kingdom (we are mammals, first and foremost), and with Nature as a whole. The novel's shocking ending would have immediately collapsed in lesser hands. In Ingalls' agile hands, it is a triumph of art and truth over self-deception and false consciousness. As a literary achievement, "Binstead's Safari" is inescapably linked to Isak Dinesen, as homage and as an advance over the work of the one writer who has had the most influence on her. Rachel Ingalls is THE bewildering, eternal recluse among great late-modern writers in English. She has never made a public appearance in her fifty-odd-year career as a published writer, and her publishing history is as bewildering as her tales. For devoted reader/collectors, the rules of thumb are fairly simple: a) All of her books first appeared in the United Kingdom, where she has lived since 1964; b) All of them have been issued subsequently in the United States, sometimes under altogether different titles; and c) the American Editions remain eminently collectible, particularly for completists, because she has been served well by her publishers here in terms of both content and production values. One of the greatest storyteller-writers of our time, she is a latter-day Isak Dinesen whose theme is the sublime mystery of human existence. Once started, it is impossible to put down a Rachel Ingalls book. An absolute "must-have" title for Rachel Ingalls collectors. This title is a late-modern classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a beauty. It is the single most beautiful copy we have ever seen. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. Rachel Ingalls' "Mrs. Caliban" is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels in the English language of the 20th century. One of the finest American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER RACHEL INGALLS TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 057113016X.

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