PAVANE

First US edition, first printing. Signed by the author. Original navy cloth with gilt titles to the spine and a blindstamped motif to the upper board, in the Pat Steir illustrated dustwrapper. A better than very good copy, the binding square and firm, bright and fresh with light rubbing at the extremities. The contents are clean throughout and without previous owners' stamps or inscriptions. Complete with the lightly rubbed and creased dustwrapper which is a little faded to the spine and otherwise without loss or tears. Not price-clipped ($4.95 on the front flap). An attractive example.

Inscribed by Keith Roberts on the title page "To Andy, with all good wishes. / Keith Roberts". An alternate history novel consisting of six linked stories, described by George R. R. Martin as "one of the greatest alternate world stories ever told". 'Pavane' imagines a feudal 20th century Britain in which the industrial revolution never happened and the country is ruled by the Catholic Church, which seized power after the assassination of Queen Elizabeth I in 1588. Each story was first published in Impulse (on which Roberts worked as an assistant editor) and its sister magazine New Worlds in 1966. The stories were serialised in a different order to how they appear in the novel, 'The Signaller' being published first, followed by 'The Lady Anne' (later changed to 'The Lady Margaret'), 'Brother John', 'Lords and 'Ladies', 'Corfe Gate' and 'The White Boat', while the novel presents the stories in the following order: 'The Lady Margaret', 'The Signaller', 'The White Boat', 'Brother John', 'Lords and Ladies' and 'Corfe Gate', an order which reveals details about the mysterious setting in a notably different manner. The novel also includes a new prologue and a coda, which were never published in magazines. 'Pavane' was first published as a novel in the UK by Hart-Davis in 1968, this US edition was published in the same year.