HUNTER AND HUNTED

Genevoix, Maurice (1890-1980); Translated from the French by Warre Bradley Well

The Last Hunt

New York: Random House, 1940. Illustrations by Lynd Ward. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover with Dust Jacket.
A HAUNTING FOREST NOVEL OF HUNTER AND QUARRY, ILLUSTRATED THROUGHOUT BY LYND WARD.
A haunting woodland novel centered on the pursuit of a great stag and the complicated relationship between hunter and quarry. Genevoix moves between the lives of the animals and the two hunters who pursue the stag, creating a story of instinct, survival, violence, and man's place within the natural world.

A FOREST NOVEL IN THE TRADITION OF BAMBI.
Contemporary reviewers recognized the obvious comparison with Felix Salten's Bambi, although Genevoix's treatment is more firmly centered on the hunt itself. The New Yorker described the book as the pursuit of a stag by two contrasting hunters, while contemporary Kirkus emphasized its forest atmosphere and the stag's role in the lives of the Killer and the Man.

Lynd Ward's extensive illustrations are particularly well suited to the novel's woodland setting and add substantial visual interest to the American edition.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: ILLUSTRATED BY LYND WARD.
Octavo, 8.25 inches tall, 281 pages. Green cloth with gilt-stamped titles and pictorial paste-on decoration to the front board, dark brown top stain, and decorated endpapers. Illustrated throughout by Lynd Ward with 55 illustrations, including 10 full-page illustrations. Translated from the French by Warre Bradley Wells. Issued with a pictorial dust jacket priced $2.50.

CONDITION: VERY GOOD IN A VERY GOOD DUST JACKET.
Bindings tight and square. Text clean with light, even age-toning. Moderate shelf handling wear with some sun-fading along the lower edge of the cloth. The original priced dust jacket has even age-toning with minimal shelf handling wear and is now protected in a clear Mylar sleeve.

LITERARY AND ILLUSTRATIVE SIGNIFICANCE: GENEVOIX MEETS LYND WARD.
 Maurice Genevoix was particularly associated with writing about nature, animals, hunting, and the French countryside. Here the traditional hunting narrative becomes an exploration of the nearly mystical affinity and inevitable conflict between hunter and hunted.

Lynd Ward's extensive illustrations are particularly well suited to the novel's woodland setting and add substantial visual interest to the American edition.

SUBJECTS: Maurice Genevoix, Lynd Ward, Hunting, Hunters, Deer, Stags, Forests, Wildlife, Human-Animal Relationships, Nature, French Fiction, Illustrated Books, Nature Fiction, Hunting Fiction, Animal Literature, Illustrated Books, French Literature

Item #15595

Price: $45.00