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LITTLE CAESAR.
de BURNETT, W. R
- Usado
- First
- Estado
- Ver descripción
- Librería
-
Greencastle, Pennsylvania, United States
Formas de pago aceptadas
Sobre este artículo
New York: Lincoln Mac Veagh, The Dial Press, 1929., 1929. First edition. First edition. Fine, bright, square copy in a neatly price-clipped dust jacket with some light professional restoration at the edges. Cesare Bandello (called Rico), ambitious Italian gangster who rises from petty hoodlum to leader of a gang through ruthlessness and treachery, is defeated at the peak of his success. An exceptional copy of a classic of the genre. A Haycraft/Queen Cornerstone mystery title. Filmed in 1931 by First National Studio with Mervin LeRoy as director, Francis Edward Faragoh, Robert N. Lee, Darryl Zanuck, and Robert Lord as screenwriters, and starring Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Glenda Farrell.
Sinopsis
W.R. Burnett knew, first-hand, of the world he describes in his terse, vivid 1929 novel with a brutally ironic title-Little Caesar. Burnett worked as reporter in Chicago in the 1920s, and he observed the nobodies willing to cheat and kill their way to being somebodies. The novel's hero, Cesare Bandello, known as Rico, is a "gutter Macbeth," a bad guy who claws his way up through the Chicago gang, circa 1928. Though the very idea of Rico is inseparable from Edward G. Robinson's star-making performance in the 1930 film version of Little Caesar, Burnett's novel is an fuller experience, inspired in many ways by Machiavelli's The Prince. There is nothing heroic about Rico. He is not dashing or even an especially talented man, except that he seems to have a laser-like focus on what he wants. That immediately sets him apart from the slovenly hoods who surround him. His rise above them is easy to imagine, but as the novel's title suggests, so is his fall. Rico has a discipline and an energy that keep him from being distracted by petty jealousies and appetites, like most of his comrades. He is a cold, clear-eyed student of human nature who grows too sure of his mastery of the inferiors who surround him. That bit of hubris is ultimately his undoing. Rico grows a little too smug and satisfied with his success. He forgets that he has prevailed in a jungle, where the laws of survival are immutable and unsparing, even of a little Caesar.Reading Burnett is like downing a shot of whiskey-bracing and unmistakable, with a gratifying sting. At the distance of more than 70 years, Little Caesar remains a lean and mesmerizing character study that gets inside of Rico without ever attempting to make the reader like or understand him. Though it might not seem remarkable now, this perspective seemed to break new ground at the time. Little Caesar casts an amazing shadow. William Faulkner was influenced by the novel while writing Sanctuary, as was Graham Greene while writing Brighton Rock. Burnett once told an interviewer that Horace Thompson, who wrote the existentialist novel They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, said Little Caesar convinced him that he wanted to be a writer. It is no surprise that Burnett wound up in Hollywood, a successful screenwriter, as he continued to write novels. His style is a remarkable if often overlooked jewel of American genre fiction, and it helped shape the popular culture of the 20th century.
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Detalles
- Librería
- BUCKINGHAM BOOKS
(US)
- Inventario del vendedor #
- 32777
- Título
- LITTLE CAESAR.
- Autor
- BURNETT, W. R
- Estado del libro
- Usado
- Cantidad disponible
- 1
- Edición
- First edition
- Editorial
- Lincoln Mac Veagh, The Dial Press, 1929.
- Lugar de publicación
- New York
- Fecha de publicación
- 1929
Términos de venta
BUCKINGHAM BOOKS
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Sobre el vendedor
BUCKINGHAM BOOKS
Miembro de Biblio desde 2006
Greencastle, Pennsylvania
Sobre BUCKINGHAM BOOKS
Buckingham Books specializes in new, used and rare books dealing with Mystery and Western Americana. Books in the mystery field include not only Mystery, but also Detective, Espionage, and Adventure Fiction. Our Western Americana Section offers books about the development of the American West. All books in our inventory are First Editions unless clearly stated otherwise.
Glosario
Algunos términos que podrían usarse en esta descripción incluyen:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- G
- Good describes the average used and worn book that has all pages or leaves present. Any defects must be noted. (as defined by AB...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
