ADA Or Ardor: A Family Chronicle.

First edition, first printing. Original black cloth lettered in gilt to the spine and in blind to the front panel. In the dustwrapper with Philippe Halsman's photographic portrait of the author to the rear panel. Fore-edges untrimmed. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. Very light spotting to the page block edges. The dustwrapper, with just a few barely visible surface marks to the front panel, is otherwise fine and bright. Not price-clipped ($8.95 to the upper edge of the front flap). A lovely copy.

"Ada [...] spans 100 years. It is a love story, an erotic masterpiece, a philosophical investigation into the nature of time. Almost twice as long as any previous Nabokov novel, its rich and variegated prose moves from the darkest to the lightest of sonorities as Nabokov sensually evokes the widest range of delights. Nabokov the lepidopterist once said that he was "born a landscape painter", and he has never "painted" more luminous landscapes than in Ada". (Alfred Appel, Jr., in 'The New York Times', May 4, 1969; Field 0885).