Lane, Jane (1905-1978) — A State of Mind [SIGNED]
London Frederick Muller Limited First Edition, Second Printing pp. 203, [1]. Small 8vo. Publisher's bright-red paper boards with gilt lettering to the spine. Exceptionally well-preserved extremities, contents equally without blemish with bright, clean, and unmarked pages and firm, sound binding; fine and housed in near fine original, unclipped, dustjacket showing the lightest wear along the edges of the panels. Overall, near fine. SIGNED by the author to the title page. A rare offering of this scarce work of dystopian fiction. You are living in the post-atomic future, in a Britain where there is no monarchy and where Brotherhood rules supreme; where not only gods are banished but the religious, too; where everything is State-controlled, including life itself. Your name is Clare Bentley; you have a lover, and you have the inhumanity necessary to be a success in this brave new world — until you suffer the oldest human anguish of all. Then you decide that despite the fact that you live in an officially happy, integrated age you want to die. The State, enthusiastic employers of euthanasia and the elimination of criminals, frowns upon suicide-unless you have permission, that is. You make the necessary application, fill in the forms and prepare to bring your life to a quiet, antiseptic end in a Home of Rest. There you encounter Stephen, the cynic, and Peter, the outlawed Catholic priest who cannot face the task he has set himself. Both men defy the unemotional environment in which they live, both play a part in reshaping your life, but neither can reshape your mind. One of our foremost historical novelists, Jane Lane has courageously leapt into the future with an ingenuity that equals anything hitherto published in the genre. Readers of such works as Sow the Tempest and The Crown for a Lie know Miss Lane to be conscientious in the art of embroidering fact with fiction and will find the same careful craftsmanship in this hypothetical, but frighteningly possible new novel.