A Burnt-Out Case

First edition in English. Crown 8vo. Pp. [viii], 256. Black cloth, lettered in silver to spine. Wrapper design by Lacey Everett (priced 16s net to front flap). First edition thus, the true first edition being the Swedish translation, published as Utbränd by Norstedt & Söners in 1960, with Norwegian, Danish, and French translations following.

Signed by Author to title page. Top edge dusty, scattered foxing to verso, lower panel, and folds of dustwrapper, else fine.

A world-weary traveller, afflicted with an advanced case of weltschmerz and spiritual desolation, fetches up in Africa. One of Greene's so-called "entertainments," set in a 'leproserie' on a tributary of the Congo. Dedicated to Doctor Michel Lechat, ministering at an Afican leper colony, whom the author visited to draw inspiration for the novel.

[Wobbe A41a; Miller 40a]