A VAUDEVILLE OF DEVILS: 7 Moral Tales

New York, New York, U.S.A. : Delacorte Press, 1999. Limited Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Fine/As New. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Lavish, enigmatic, and faintly sinister, Robert Girardi's fourth book, A VAUDEVILLE OF DEVILS, flaunts a Borges-like sensibility, faux folklore encompassing an enormous universe. Moving from the medieval Levant to post-apocalyptic California, its concern is the moment of choice, when characters are confounded by dilemma. In "The Demons Tormenting Untersturmführer Hans Otto Graebner" an SS officer dispatched to destroy allegedly subversive paintings finds himself first confronted with his own hypocrisy and then, literally, captured by art itself. "The Primordial Face" follows an obsessive Arabian's search for a legendary carving on the floor of the sea while his two divers succumb to the charms of his young daughter. "Three Ravens on a Red Ground" juxtaposes a Crusading knight devoted to a lost cause with a suburban executive troubled by an impending merger. "The Dinner Party" takes place at the end of the world, where martini-sipping gods icily dismiss their flame-ravaged creation. And in "Arcana Mundi," an eerie, fairy-tale-like retelling of an ancient Greek story, a vintner allows two mysterious strangers to raise his young daughter.With this volume, Robert Girardi illustrates a world that is both beautifully alluring and brilliantly sinister, where souls are lost and won on the simple weight of everyday decisions. Rich with history and irony, vastly entertaining and told in the timeless style of tales, fables, and myths, these meditations on morality remind us of the eternal human condition. [This copy is number 217 of a limited edition of 3,000 copies.] Very fine, unreade, first edition, first printing, in as new, mylar-protected dust jackedt. [Not remainder-marked or price-clipped) L164