Pincher Martin

First edition, first impression: London: Faber and Faber, 1956. Signed by the author to the front endpaper. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With the original pictorial dust jacket designed by Anthony Gross, priced 15s. A very good or better copy: The binding is square and firm with some spotting to the edges and, far more faintly, to the opening and closing couple of leaves; the contents are otherwise clean and fresh. The dust jacket excellent, with a couple of very small nicks and chips to the spine ends and a touch of toning to the spine panel; a remarkably bright and well-preserved example. "Pincher Martin" is the third novel by William Golding, following the success of "Lord of the Flies" (1954) and "The Inheritors" (1955). "Pincher Martin" is a harrowing, existentialist survival story centered on Christopher Hadley Martin, a naval officer stranded on a barren rock in the Atlantic after his ship is torpedoed. The novel is celebrated for its psychological intensity and its famous twist ending. Golding, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983, used the story to explore themes of purgatory and the human ego.