Bowen, Marjorie. The Viper of Milan.

London: Readers Library, n.d. [1930].
Readers Library edition, small 8vo. Publisher’s maroon cloth gilt, surprisingly strong and clean considering Readers Library books are to durability what I am to stable, wholesome relationships; a total stranger. Internally clean, though tanned due to the worst paper stock in publishing history, in a gloriously bright and unfaded example of the utterly bananas dustwrapper, with one rather annoying defect: a chunk of loss to the head of the spine panel, maybe a centimetre square, otherwise this would be in the running for the best Reader’s Library dustwrapper I have ever seen. Ah well, it’s a pretty little copy of this legendary writer’s first book, and I can’t quit my lust/loathe relationship with Readers Library.