The Sixteen Pleasures
by Hellenga, Robert
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good+/Very Good+
- ISBN 10
- 1569470065
- ISBN 13
- 9781569470060
- Seller
-
Tokyo, Japan
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Warner Books, 1994. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good+/Very Good+. This is an ex-lib edition. Graceful, assured prose, a wry but empathetic view of the human character and an authoritative command of fascinating background detail are among the distinguishing features of this deeply satisfying first novel. Set in Florence after the terrible Arno flood of 1966, it is told partially by narrator Margot Harrington, a 29-year-old American book conservator who has come to Italy as one of the "mud angels" who volunteer in the wake of the disaster. Margot's life has been a series of bright promises deflected to dead ends, and she hopes Florence will provide a key to her future. Art restoration expert Dottor Alessandro Postiglione--debonair, middle-aged and married--suggests that Margot lodge at a Carmelite convent whose abbess is his cousin. When the nuns discover a priceless (and proscribed) Renaissance manuscript of 16 erotic poems and drawings, the abbess asks Margot to sell it, secretly, so that the convent will have the funds to resist the overbearing bishop's efforts to seize its treasured library. Many strands wind through the rest of the narrative: details about techniques of book and art restoration, observations of convent life refracted through Margot's Protestant sensibilities and such arcane (and humorous) information as the methods by which a canonical court decides whether a man is truly impotentia coeundi (and thus entitled to an annulment). Meanwhile, Margot's love affair with Sandro is described in sensuous detail. It is remarkable that Hellenga, a recipient of a PEN fiction award for his short stories, can at this point in his career produce such a witty, sophisticated and wise.
Synopsis
Robert Hellenga teaches at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, six Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowships, an Illinois Arts Council Literacy Award, and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Award.
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Details
- Seller
- Infinity Books Japan (JP)
- Seller's Inventory #
- RWARE0000013432
- Title
- The Sixteen Pleasures
- Author
- Hellenga, Robert
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+/Very Good+
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- ISBN 10
- 1569470065
- ISBN 13
- 9781569470060
- Publisher
- Warner Books
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1994
Terms of Sale
Infinity Books Japan
We return books after seven days, if the customer is not 100% happy with our transaction.
About the Seller
Infinity Books Japan
Biblio member since 2006
Tokyo
About Infinity Books Japan
Infinity Books Japan,was founded in the year 2002, we pride ourselves in being there for our customers, we deal in, used, rare, out of print and first editions.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Good+
- A term used to denote a condition a slight grade better than Good.
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- A.N.
- The book is pristine and free of any defects, in the same condition as ...