The Plumed Serpent (Quetzalcoatl)
D. H. Lawrence
Published by Martin Secker, London, 1926 (FIRST EDITION/FIRST ISSUE), octavo, 480 pp with VERY RARE ORIGINAL DUSTWRAPPER; Sunning to spine, small chip and edge tear, occasional spotting and staining rear panel DJ only otherwise FINE condition - in custom made leather and cloth clamshell case with gilt stamped title/author/date on spine - a very handsome package - RARE THUS!
Fine copy in the original gilt brown cloth; First Edition/First printing, octavo size, 480 pp. with the very rare dust jacket/wrapper.
David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930) was an English novelist and poet, best known for his books "Women in Love", "Sons and Lovers", and "Lady Chatterley's Lover", and The Rainbow. "The Plumed Serpent" is a novel set in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution, told through the eyes of a group of visiting British tourists. This volume is the first edition, printed in 1926 on London, England. Full brown cloth, blind-embossed ruled borders on the front and back board, gilt lettering and ruled borders on the spine (7.75" by 5.25"), pagination: [1-4] 5 [6] 7-476 [477-480 WITH the rare dust wrapper.
The Plumed Serpent is a 1926 political novel by D. H. Lawrence; Lawrence conceived the idea for the novel while visiting Mexico in 1923, and its themes reflect his experiences there. The novel was first published by Martin Secker's firm in the United Kingdom and Alfred A. Knopf in the United States.
The novel's plot concerns Kate Leslie, an Irish tourist who visits Mexico after the Mexican Revolution. She encounters Don Cipriano, a Mexican general who supports a religious movement, the Men of Quetzalcoatl, founded by his friend Don Ramón Carrasco. Within this movement, Cipriano is identified with Huitzilopochtli and Ramón with Quetzalcoatl. Kate eventually agrees to marry Cipriano, while the Men of Quetzalcoatl, with the help of a new President, bring about an end to Christianity in Mexico, replacing it with pagan Quetzalcoatl worship.
The novel received a varied reception. Novelists such as British writer E. M. Forster considered it Lawrence’s best literary work. Literary critics have different opinions about its literary merit. Some have found it inferior to his other work, but others have considered it his greatest accomplishment as a novelist, an assessment shared by Lawrence himself.
The novel received attention in Mexico, where its reception was positive, and it was praised by the Nobel laureate Octavio Paz. The Plumed Serpent has been compared to other works by Lawrence such as the novels Kangaroo (1923) and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), and the essays Sketches of Etruscan Places and other Italian essays (1932), as well as to the work of the poet T. S. Eliot.
Some commentators have characterised The Plumed Serpent as fascist and as an attack on Christianity, and others have discussed the supposed belief of women's submission to men that is allegedly present in the novel. It has also been interpreted as an expression of Lawrence’s personal political ambition and as having homoerotic aspects. (The foregoing from Wikepdia)
This is the best and finest copy by far currently available on-line of the First English edition of arguably one of D.H. Lawrence's greatest novels - with the very rare dust jacket in a custom clamshell box!
