GENTLE, MARY — Rats and Gargoyles

London, England: Bantam Books, 1990. 1st British Edition; 1st Printing. Hardcover. Signed edition. This book is in Near Fine condition and has a Near Fine dust jacket. The book and its contents are in clean, bright condition. The text pages are clean and bright. The dust jacket is crisp and clean. "The novels Rats and Gargoyles (1990) , The Architecture of Desire (1991) , and Left to His Own Devices (1994) , together with several short stories, form a loosely linked series (collected in White Crow in 2003). As with Michael Moorcock's series about his antihero Jerry Cornelius, Gentle's sequence retains some basic facts about her two protagonists Valentine (also known as the White Crow) and Casaubon while changing much else about them, including what world they inhabit. Several take place in an alternate history version of 17th century and later England, where a form of Renaissance Hermetic magic has taken over the role of science. Another, Left To His Own Devices, takes place in a cyberpunk-tinged version of our own near future. The sequence is informed by historically existing ideas about esotericism and alchemy and is rife with obscure allusions to real history and literature. " (from Wikipedia); Signed by Author. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket .