Hermann Broch
Der Tod des Vergil.
New York: Pantheon Books, 1945. First printing. 522 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6.25" x 9.25", is bound in black cloth spine and orange cloth boards, with a gilt-lettered red spine label. Book shows external wear, with heavy rubbing visible on spine panel. Binding is sound.  Lightly age-toned pages are clean and without markings.
The ancient Roman poet Virgil, creator of the »Aeneid«, relives his last hours on earth and in them once again with the highest intensity his spiritual struggle with the questions of meaning of artistic existence, which leads him to ultimate thoughts on literature and life. This novel, written in exile in the US and published in 1945, is a delicately crafted epic about the possibilities and limits of art. With it, the Austrian Hermann Broch has created a monument of literary modernism that is unparalleled in its inventiveness in design.