Naipaul, V. S

New York. 1964. Macmillan. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Slightly Worn Dustjacket With A Few Small Tear Marks On The Front Cover. 160 pages. hardcover. Cover: Leonard Rosoman. keywords: Literature Caribbean Trinidad England India . FROM THE PUBLISHER - Anthony Powell has called V. S. Naipaul Britain's ‘most talented and promising young writer'. Mr Stone and the Knights Companion is the first of Mr Naipaul's books to turn away from his native West Indies and to deal with English characters in an English scene. In this novel he tells the story of Mr Stone's last months before his retirement from his post as librarian in a large commercial firm. At such a time, however well regulated a man s life has been, he begins to feel a chill creeping in from the future. Mr Stone, whose life has been well-regulated to the point of eccentricity, becomes so rattled by intimations of mortality that at sixty-two, in spite of having enjoyed his existence as a bachelor, he gets married. And as though that were not astonishing enough, he goes on to have an inspiration which changes the tenor of his life. The creative spirit seizes him; he conceives an idea, embodies it in a plan, and persuades his firm to turn it into fact. In practice this idea proves to be a success, and incredulously Mr Stone tastes the joys of achievement. But V. S. Naipaul, the least sentimental of writers, does not cheat. He brings great charm to this story, and the humour for which he is already celebrated, but he faces the truth that no achievement can hold back time. Having been tickled, delighted, absorbed and touched, you find when you put this book down that you have been persuaded into a ruthless study of the human condition, and you will never forget it. inventory #9080