Patricia Highsmith
The Animal-Lover's Book of Beastly Murder.
Penzler Books, 1986. Author-signed first printing. 0892961718 229 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6" x 8.75", is bound in yellow cloth, with stamped blue lettering to spine. Book exhibits very mild shelfwear, with faint spotting on spine and light foxing visible on edges of text block. Yellow-cloth slipcase has small ink marking to one side panel. Author's signature appears on limitation page indicating this to be copy 82 of 250 copies.
"Nowhere is Patricia Highsmith's affinity for animals more apparent than in "The Animal-Lover's Book of Beastly Murder," for here she transfers the murderous thoughts and rages most associated with humans onto the animals themselves. You will meet, for example, in "In the Dead of Truffle Season," a truffle-hunting pig who tries to whet his own appetite for a while; or Jumbo in "Chorus Girl's Absolutely Final Performance," a lonely, old circus elephant who decides she's had enough of show business and cruel trainers for one lifetime. In this satirical reprise of Kafka, cats, dogs, and breeding rodents are no longer ordinary beings in the happy home, but actually have the power to destroy the world in which we live."