The Eye of the Storm

First edition. Crown 8vo. 608 pp. Dark blue cloth boards, lettered and decorated in gilt to spine; blue top-stain. Tan endpapers. Jacket painting by Desmond Digby (priced at £2.95 to front flap). Published on 16 September 1973, with advance copies rushed to Sweden in anticipation of the Nobel Prize announcement on the 18th of October, which White won. 1/23,000 copies printed.

Ex-library copy with usual markings to prelims., stamps to top and fore- edges, check-out card pocket and lending slip pasted to front paste down and free endpaper. Dustwrapper somewhat creased to front flap, else intact in library-supplied Durasleeve protector.

Based squarely on White's formidable mother, Ruth, the novel offers a savage exploration of family dynamics, as matriarch Elizabeth Hunter maintains her iron grip on both her offspring and obsequious attendants while lying on her deathbed. Filmed in 2011 by director Frank Schepisi with Charlotte Rampling, Judy Davies and Geoffrey Rush. "An antipodean King Lear writ gentle and tragicomic, almost Chekhovian... Eye of the Storm [is] an intensely dramatic masterpiece." –The Australian

[Hubber & Smith M1a]