Vintage 1941 \"Three Companion Pieces\" by Margery Sharp. Hardcover Very Good For Sale

Vintage 1941 \"Three Companion Pieces\" by Margery Sharp. Hardcover Very Good!

Appears to be a first edition, second (?) printing.

No dust jacket.

Photos are of actual item for sale.

Condition is \"Very Good\". Bit of soiling/staining on cover. Reading pages are excellent, clean and unmarked, no rips or tears.

Shipped with USPS Media Mail.

This book is an anthology of three novelettes, and all three have the distinction of being illustrated by the fabulous artist Anna Zinkeisen.

All three are set in the Victorian era, are thematically connected, and reference a time when young, wealthy, be-wigged men went on the Grand Tour of Europe, and young, delicate women went obediently off to arranged marriages. There is nothing romantic or appealing about these stories, in the usual sense, but to continue the tradition of the cozy Victorian romance was clearly not Margery Sharp’s intent in writing them.

While categorized as ‘light and amusing’, or even described as ‘satiric’ but ‘unconvincing’ by the Kirkus Review, the stories are actually small gems of tragicomedy that remind us that Margery Sharp had a passion for theater. As a modestly successful playwright, she was a keen student of the works of modern (for her) dramatists such as Chekhov, Ibsen, and Maeterlinck.

A tragicomedy has been defined as a tragedy with a happy ending, or, a comedy with a tragic outcome.