A Gyertyak Csonkig Egnek (Embers)

First Edition. The extremely scarce true first edition in Hungarian of one of the most surprising bestsellers of recent years, translated into English as Embers. This novel was unavailable in Hungary for 50 years and, with a print run of just 5000 copies, the first edition has never been easy tofind, even in Hungary.

With the upsurge of international interest in Marai's work, and in this book in particular, it is now fair to class copies of the first edition as rare. In the publisher's full, light tan linen, lettered and ruled in chocolate brown with the author's initials in pink to front cover, slate grey endpapers. The flat-back binding has contributed to the disintegration of most copies of this book.

Over the past twenty years of dealing in Hungarian literature about a dozen copies of this key book have passed through my hands and the present copy is one of the best preserved I have seen. Foxing to covers and page edges with some signs of handling but still sound and internally very clean.