Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man — The Folio Society | Siegfried Sassoon | 1971 | Second Impression | Drawings by Lynton Lamb | in Slipcase

A very good copy of the Folio Society's 1971 publication of Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon — the first and most beloved volume of the Sherston trilogy, and one of the finest evocations of Edwardian England ever committed to the page.

First published in 1928 and awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man is one of those rare books that manages to be two things at once: a deeply pleasurable pastoral idyll — all cricket, horses, hounds, and long summer days in the English countryside — and, beneath that sunlit surface, an elegy for a world already slipping away. The narrator George Sherston, Sassoon's barely disguised alter ego, moves through the rituals of Edwardian rural life with an innocent delight that the reader knows, from the outset, is doomed. The First World War waits at the edge of every chapter. It is one of the essential English books of the twentieth century.

The Folio Society's edition honours the text with a production of considerable charm. Bound in cream pictorial cloth, the boards printed with a wraparound design of the hunt in full cry — riders in scarlet jackets, hounds streaming across a winter landscape — the whole drawn with an ease and energy that perfectly captures the spirit of Sassoon's prose. Red title label to spine, lettered in gilt. Illustrated throughout with drawings by Lynton Lamb, whose draughtsmanship is sympathetic, assured, and deeply in keeping with the period of the text. Introduction by Sir Alan Lascelles. 290 pp.

Housed in the original grey card slipcase.

This second impression copy is in very good condition throughout — cloth bright and clean, the red printing to the boards vivid and unfaded, pages fresh and unmarked, binding firm and tight. The slipcase shows some light wear to the top edge and a little dust, consistent with age, but is otherwise sound and complete. A handsome and eminently readable copy of a timeless English classic.

Of particular interest to collectors of First World War literature, Edwardian social history, field sports, and fine Folio Society editions of the 1970s. Note: this is volume one only of the Sherston trilogy; the complete three-volume set is also highly sought after.