MADAME SOLARIO

by [Gladys Theodora Parrish Huntington] Anonymous

New York: The Viking Press, (1956).

First edition.

"First published in August 1956."

A fine, bright copy; in a nearly fine, illustrated dust jacket with minor shelf wear and mild soiling to the rear panel.

Attractive jacket art by Irv Docktor.

Set in 1906 at a fashionable hotel on Lake Como, "this mysterious and somewhat scandalous novel: try suicide, adultery, and pathological familial relationships simmering underneath the impenetrable membrane of elegant manners,"(wordpress) features the enchanting Natalia Solario, a woman of worldly charm but with a difficult past.

 "The novel was anonymously published in 1956 (likely due to what was considered scandalous content), and her identity as the author would not be revealed for three decades.

The book was considered a masterpiece by Marguerite Yourcenar, who discussed it on several occasions In her correspondance. In a segment on neglected books, Mary Renault in The American Scholar praised the book and called it "one of the finest novels of our century." In a letter, Paul Bowles called it "beautifully imagined and written", adding, "What a shame that the author never wrote anything else! And didn’t even dare sign her name to it for fear of scandalizing her British in-laws"--wiki.

Huntington's prose is often compared to that of Henry James. 

Tragically, the author committed suicide in 1959.

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