KING GOSHAWK AND THE BIRDS

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original grey-brown cloth with titles in dark brown to the upper board and in black to the spine, with an illustration of a bird with outstretched wings stamped in dark brown to the upper board and a caged blackbird illustration stamped in black to the spine, in the rare dustwrapper. Top edge dark brown. Deckled bottom edge. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents, with mild offsetting to the inner flyleaves, a couple of light spots to the fore-edge and the occasional foxing spot to the top edge of the closed text block, are otherwise clean throughout, and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the very good or better, rubbed, nicked and lightly creased dustwrapper, which has a few short closed tears and small chips and some dustiness to the flap edges. Not price-clipped (7/6 net to the lower front flap).

A landmark work of early Irish science fiction and the first book in the satirical fantasy Cuanduine Trilogy, alongside 'The Spacious Adventures of the Man in the Street' (1928) and 'Asses in Clover' (1933). The novel is set in a dystopian society ruled by a few King Capitalists in control of all the wealth, and follows Goshawk, King of the Industrialists, as he decides to purchase all of the birds and wildflowers in the world for his wife, later charging the public money to see them. In retaliation, a Dublin philosopher brings back to life the mythical warrior hero Cuchulain, in the hopes that he, or his future son Cuanduine, will rid the world of Goshawk's extreme economic oppression and restore social equality. The book was written between 1923-6, during which time O'Duffy left Ireland disillusioned by his experience of the Nationalist movement and moved to England (Hogan, 1972). This change in setting is also reflected in the book towards the end and "reinvigorates [the] final section with a new energy" (Kevin Gildea for The Irish Times, 2018). References: 'Eimar O'Duffy' by Robert Goode Hogan (1972).