Notes on this edition: First Canadian edition – Toronto: Random House, 1987. $19.95.
Descriptive Bibliography:
Title Page: JULIAN BARNES | [multiple lines of alternating thickness arranged to suggest the image of a sunset] | STARING | AT THE SUN | [ruled lines of alternating thickness] | RANDOM HOUSE TORONTO | 1 9 [Random House device] 8 7
Copyright Page: Copyright © 1986 by Julian Barnes | All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright | Conventions. Published in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, | Toronto, and simultaneously in | the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. | Originally published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Limited, London. | Canadian Cataloging in Publication Data | Barnes, Julian. | Staring at the sun. | ISBN 0-394-22005-6 | I. Title. | PR6052.A66S7 1987 823’ .914 C86-094603-7 | Manufactured in the United States of America | FIRST CANADIAN EDITION
Collation: 21.2 x 14.4 cm. Untrimmed pages. Pp. [i-viii, 1-8] 9-65 [66-70] 71-137 [138-142] 143-197 [198-200] [Note: no even page numbers were printed]. [i]: blank. [ii]: ‘ALSO BY JULIAN BARNES | Metroland | Before She Met Me | Flaubert’s Parrot’. [iii]: ‘STARING AT THE SUN’. [iv]: blank. [v]: title page. [vi]: copyright page. [vii]: ‘to Pat’. [viii]: blank. [1]: ‘STARING AT THE SUN’. [2]: blank. [3-4]: text. [5]: ‘[multiple lines of alternating thickness arranged to suggest the image of a sunset] | ONE | You ask me what life is? It is like asking what a carrot | is. A carrot is a carrot, and nothing more is known. | –CHEKHOV TO OLGA KNIPPER, 20 April 1904 | [ruled lines of alternating thickness]’. [6]: blank. [7]-[66]: text. [67]: ‘[multiple lines of alternating thickness arranged to suggest the image of a sunset] | TWO | Three wise men—are you serious? | –GRAFFITO, c. 1984 | [ruled lines of alternating thickness]’. [68]: blank. [69]-137: text. [138]: blank. [139]: ‘[multiple lines of alternating thickness arranged to suggest the image of a sunset] | THREE | immortality is no learned question. | –KIERKEGAARD | [ruled lines of alternating thickness]’. [140]: blank. [141]-197: text. [198]: blank. [199]: ‘A NOTE ON THE TYPE | The text of this book was set in a digitized version of Bembo, a | well-known Monotype face. Named for Pietro Bembo, the cele- | brated Renaissance writer and humanist scholar who was made a | cardinal and served as secretary to Pope Leo X, the original cut- | ting of Bembo was made by Francesco Griffo of Bologna only a | few years after Columbus discovered America. | Sturdy, well balanced, and finely proportioned, Bembo is a | face of rare beauty, extremely legible in all of its sizes. | Composed by Creative Graphics, Inc. | Printed and bound by Fairfield Graphics, | Fairfield, Pennsylvania. | Book design by Marysarah Quinn’. [200]: blank.
General description: Binding 22 x 15 cm. White boards, light purple quarter binding gold blocked on spine. White endpapers. White dust jacket lettered in light purple (title), blue (author), and black (quotes on lower panel). Multi-colored cover illustration by Havier Romero. Photograph of the author by Nancy Crampton located on back flap. Appears nearly identical to the First American edition, except for Random House markings to jacket spine and back flap. No price to front flap.