Marion Zimmer Bradley The Firebrand Hardcover 1987

📖 The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Simon & Schuster, 1987) — a retelling of Homer’s Iliad from the viewpoint of Kassandra, the prophet-princess of Troy, and Bradley’s only novel set in ancient Greece. This is the first trade edition in a clean, unclipped dust jacket.

QUICK FACTS

• Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-1999), author of The Mists of Avalon
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York
• Year: 1987 – first trade edition; number line indicates first printing
• Format: Hardcover, 608 pages, in dust jacket; blue cloth, gilt spine lettering
• ISBN: 0-671-64177-8 (978-0-671-64177-1)
• Condition: Book Very Good / Jacket VG-VG+ – full report below

THE STORY

The novel opens with an aging Kassandra correcting the tale of the Trojan War told by a traveling minstrel. Twin of Paris – sent away to shepherds at birth after a prophecy that twins bring bad luck – she carries the gift, or curse, of prophecy: she foresees the fall of Troy, and no one in the city believes her. Her loyalties pull between the rites of Apollo and the older faith of the Earth Mother; she spends a year among the Amazons, whose queen Penthesilea becomes a mother figure, then returns home to watch the doom she saw arrive from the sea.

THIS EDITION

The Simon & Schuster first trade edition, 608 pages, first printing per the number line. The copyright page carries the dedication “For Mary Renault” – a nod to the historical novelist of the Greek world (author of The King Must Die) whose ground Bradley was walking. The original jacket is unclipped with the $19.95 flap price intact, now in a removable archival sleeve.

THE COVER ART

The dust jacket painting shows Kassandra facing the bay: dark hair braided, white classical dress, a green serpent held in her hands and two more coiled around her arms. Behind her the water runs dark, and on the far shore the citadel of Troy burns on its mountain under a smoke-darkened sky; on the back panel a stone temple stands among cypress trees. The serpents are the novel’s emblem of the Earth Mother, the old faith set against Apollo. The jacket illustration is credited to Wilson McLean, the fantasy artist familiar from Bradley’s covers.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The follow-up to The Mists of Avalon (1983), and Bradley’s only novel set in ancient Greece – her second retelling of a classical legend from a woman’s perspective.
• Ranked twentieth in the 1988 Locus Awards poll of the year’s best fantasy novels.
• Translated into twelve or more languages, beginning with Portuguese and French in 1989.
• The dedication links this copy to Mary Renault, whose Greek-world novels had opened this ground a generation earlier.

FREQUENTLY ASKED

What edition is this? A first trade edition from Simon & Schuster, 1987, first printing per the number line. ISBN 0-671-64177-8.

What condition is it in? Book Very Good, jacket VG-VG+. The full condition report is below.

Is it signed? No – it is unsigned. Its appeal is the clean first printing with the unclipped original jacket.

FOR COLLECTORS

This is the 1987 first printing to shelve beside Mists of Avalon: a solid 608-page text block, a bright jacket with the original price intact, the dedication to Mary Renault, and the serpent-and-burning-Troy painting Bradley collectors know. The faint foxing is confined to the upper edge; details in the report below.

Book Details

• Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Illustrator: Wilson McLean (Cover Art)
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster
• Edition Points: First Trade Edition, 1987. First printing indicated by number line.

Condition Report

• Overall Grade: Book: Very Good (VG) / Jacket: Very Good (VG)/Very Good+ (VG+)
• Cover & Spine: Blue cloth boards with clear gilt titling, cloth at spine head and tail lightly sunned. Board upper corners both bumped, lower corners crisp. Boards are pleasingly clear of marks or scuffs.
• Dust Jacket: Price unclipped. Minimal edge wear, no jams or tears or marks. Uniform in colors all around, not sunned. Now protected in a removable archival sleeve.
• Text Block & Pages: Tight block, square. Aside from a publisher mark on the lower edge near the spine, no marks. Upper edge has some very faint foxing spots, otherwise fairly uniform all around, pleasing. Internal pages upper corner tips in later portion of the book mildly crimped.
• Binding: Tight, square, and solid, with clean paste-downs and endpapers and solid intact hinges.

See accompanying images for full condition details.

Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.

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