The Name of Action
Heinemann, 1930.
First edition. Original dark blue cloth lettered in gilt in yellow dustwrapper printed in black and red. A fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper, which just has a shallow chip at the head of the spine and trivial wear to the corners, but is otherwise unusually bright and crisp.
The author's second novel, which derives its title from a snatch of Hamlet's famous soliloquy, "With this regard their currents turn awry / And lose the name of action." It was a critical flop, which rather depressed Greene, who would later refer to it in exaggeratedly demeaning terms, "of a badness beyond the power of criticism properly to evokeĀthe prose flat and stilted" and he repudiated both it and his following novel, Rumour at Nightfall.
The first issue (with the original 7/6 price) is now uncommon, without being unobtainably rare, however the dustwrapper's light colouring and thin stock mean it is very seldom encountered in bright and undamaged condition.
Stock ID: 40157
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