Cats in the Isle of Man

[light shelfwear, slight exposure of board at lower tips, spine very slightly turned; jacket lightly but evently age-toned, small chip at upper left of front panel, a couple of tiny chips at top of spine (one slightly affecting the S in CATS)]. Rare novel by the French-American socialite and heiress (to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune) who was one of the most well-known and influential style icons of her day -- a fashionista, generations before that term was coined. At one time the Paris editor of Harper's Bazaar, she was one of the most important customers/patrons of couturier Elsa Schiaparelli -- who created one of her signature colors, Shocking Pink, expressly for her. "Shocking," in fact, was pretty much the operative word for Daisy's lifestyle; as one journalist put it, "she lived on a diet of morphine and grouse, with the occasional cocktail thrown in" (and if morphine couldn't be had, she was just as fond of opium or cocaine), and when it came to sex, "she was a voracious man-eater, whod steal her daughters boyfriends and seduce her best friends husbands." One of her rivals in the international social scene, Lady Diana Cooper, called her "the very picture of fashionable depravity." She was also known as one of the world's great collectors of fine jewelry, and is said to have owned an extensive collection of leather-bound pornography. She occasionally composed some poetry, but this was her first (and almost last) crack at a novel, and it's the sort of book you'd expect a woman like this to write: vaguely autobiographical, witty and occasionally caustic, peopled with characters that are likely based on individuals in her social circle (which admittedly gave her a lot of material to work with), and fairly insubstantial. The book's protagonist is named Claudia; the novel is narrated by her friend Judith, who has known her since childhood and evolves (if that's the word) into a lifelong hanger-on, trailing Claudia around Europe (and at one point to America) as both observer and confidante, relating Claudia's adventures as she demonstrates her consistently poor taste in men. I think we just have to take it on faith that the book's theme is, as boldly declared on the front jacket flap, "Women in the World of Men." At any rate, it's got a fabulous Fantomas/Dracula-evoking jacket design, with a naked woman spreading her black cloak (which sort of resembles bat wings) as a dark-eyed stranger looms behind her. (And just for the record: none of the action in this book takes place on the actual Isle of Man, so I think we have to assume it's a metaphor, or something.)

Product Info

Publisher: Lincoln MacVeagh/The Dial Press

Year: 1929

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Seller Info

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