The Folding Star
- The Folding Star
- Alan Hollinghurst
- Pantheon Books, New York, 1994
In this story of obsessions, a disaffected gay man moves from England to a country town in Flanders to tutor two boys.
The Folding Star won the James Tait Black Memorial prize for fiction in 1994 and it was shortlisted for the Booker.
The New York Review of Books said: “You could read this novel as a miniature Remembrance of Things Past. Or as an expanded Death in Venice… or as a homosexual Lolita…. It is an immense pleasure to read, [filled with] funniness and poetry, handled with amazing sensitivity and accuracy.”
Peter Kemp, a Times Literary Supplement critic, said, “Even in its sexiest moments, it never loses its intellectual poise. Dry witticisms intersperse sweaty couplings.” I love this review.
This is a signed American first edition in fine/fine condition. The true first edition is the Chatto and Windus of London hardcover, however, these U.S. firsts came out within days of the U.K. first. Still, prices are slightly higher for a signed U.K. edition than for these. Based mainly on condition, prices range between $55 and $145 for signed copies of this edition, whereas the range is about $65 to $170 for a signed Chatto and Windus first.
If you’re a real Hollinghurst fan, you might want both, because the cover art is quite different.
The Folding Star was Hollinghurst’s second novel after his debut masterpiece The Swimming Pool Library. He went on to win the Booker Prize with his fourth novel, The Line of Beauty in 2004.
His most recent novel The Stranger’s Child just hit the shelves in the fall of 2011 — a beautiful story which came out to rave reviews. All of his work is of the highest calibre.
If you can find a fine true first of this title for $100 or less, I would say, jump at it. Hollinghurst’s fiction is sure to rise in value over time.
