Published under a pseudonym, A E Ellis, and appearing in 1958 to considerable acclaim, The Rack is a novel about the ordeal of being deathly ill. A young English student, Paul, is sent to a Swiss sanatorium just after the end of the second world war. At a time when effective medication for tuberculosis was unknown, Paul undergoes an unimaginable regime of regimented medical intervention, both physical and mental. His fellow patients fare no better. Yet, as the poet Edwin Muir wrote in his original review in the Observer: ...
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Published under a pseudonym, A E Ellis, and appearing in 1958 to considerable acclaim, The Rack is a novel about the ordeal of being deathly ill. A young English student, Paul, is sent to a Swiss sanatorium just after the end of the second world war. At a time when effective medication for tuberculosis was unknown, Paul undergoes an unimaginable regime of regimented medical intervention, both physical and mental. His fellow patients fare no better. Yet, as the poet Edwin Muir wrote in his original review in the Observer: 'The Rack does not deal obviously with disease and suffering; it describes, sometimes very amusingly, the life of the sanatorium: the sardonic professional kindness of the doctors, liable suddenly to break under pressure, the badness of the food, the endless pre-occupation of the patients with their symptoms, and the sexual promiscuity...Behind the book one has the impression of an unusual and powerful mind.' Graham Greene considered it a masterpiece; the Times Literary Supplement believed 'the book exercises a complete fascination...a deeply impressive performance', and Time and Tide hailed The Rack as '...terrific. To read it is itself an experience.'Penelope Mortimer wrote: 'It is often glibly said that a work of art is an experience - The Rack is one of the rare instances of this actually being so. It is a book which must, inevitably, have a permanent effect on the reader. In this case the usual terms of praise become almost meaningless. So powerful is Mr Ellis's inspiration, so driven by the urgent necessity of expression, that one is not so much conscious of having read a account of an ordeal as of having lived through two years of unbearable physical and mental agony - and survived.' Long out of print, the original Heinemann and Penguin editions cut out some 60,000 words of the author's original text. Elliott & Thompson's Gold Edition will restore the complete text to provide today's reader with a chance to discover the definitive edition of one of the great English novels of the last century.
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Add this copy of The Danube Testament to cart. $30.00, good condition, Sold by Best and Fastest Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Wantage, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Bellew Publishing Co Ltd.
Add this copy of The Danube Testament (1st Edition Hardback) to cart. $64.23, very good condition, Sold by 84 Charing Cross Road Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Cambridge, CAMBS, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1998 by Bellew.
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine Condition in Near Fine jacket. Nr Fine/Nr Fine 1st edition 1998 Bellew hardback, unclipped DJ with Egon Schiele cover art. One page corner previously creased, light edge-rub to DJ else fine and bright, unmarked. Sent Airmail at no extra cost; Worldwide Shipping IMMEDIATE 1ST CLASS/AIRMAIL DISPATCH Quantity Available: 1. Category: Fiction; The book is available to view in-person at our Cambridge hub. The photos provided are of the actual book for sale, further condition-specific photos may be arranged upon request. Inventory No: 037313.
Add this copy of The Danube Testament to cart. $99.27, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Elliot & Thompson Ltd.
