signature – Page 12 – Julian Barnes Bibliography

Talking It Over (London Limited Editions, 1991)

Notes on this edition: The London Limited Edition of Talking It Over is the second limited edition produced of Julian Barnes’s works. Limited to 200 copies, the text is identical to the first U.K. edition published by Jonathan Cape, except for some preliminary pages, including the limitation signature page.

Descriptive Bibliography: First Limited edition – London: London Limited Editions, 1991. £32.00. 200 copies.

Title Page: As in the first edition hardback published by Jonathan Cape.

Copyright Page: As in the first edition hardback published by Jonathan Cape.

General description: Binding 22.3 x 14.3 cm. Marble paper over boards, dark blue cloth quarter binding gold blocked on spine. Issued with glassine dustwrapper. White endpapers.

Flaubert’s Parrot (Picador, 1985)

Notes on this edition: Flaubert’s Parrot. London: Picador, 1985. Pp. 190 + [2]. 19.6 x 13 cm. £3.95. ISBN: 0330289764.

The book pictured is an 11th printing with a number line on the copyright page reading: “19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11”

The book below is the 10th printing with a number line on the copyright page reading: “19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10”

Arthur & George (London Review Bookshop, 2005; Limited Edition Leather)

Notes on this edition: In 2005, the London Review Bookshop began publishing limited editions in high quality bindings, and they chose Julian Barnes’s novel Arthur & George to inaugurate the series. Overseen by Andrew Stilwell, the London Review Bookshop’s limited editions typically feature two kinds of special bindings (cloth and leather) housed in finely constructed slip cases.

From the limitation page:

A special signed limited First Edition of Arthur & George, of which one hundred and twenty-five have been quarter-bound in cloth and numbered 1 to 125, and twenty-five quarter-bound in leather and numbered i to xxv.

The patterned boards are from a design by Enid Marx for The Curwen Press. The book has been bound and slipcased by The Fine Bindery, Wellingborough, Northants.

The edition pictured above is number xiv of xxv, bound in quarter leather. The book itself measures 24 x 15.7 cm. The slipcase measures 24.9 x 16.9 cm.

The Guardian briefly discussed the new limited edition series on 2 July 2005.

Arthur & George (London Review Bookshop, 2005; Limited Edition Cloth)

From the limitation page:

The patterned boards are from a design by Enid Marx for The Curwen Press. The book has been bound and slipcased by The Fine Bindery, Wellingborough, Northants.

The edition pictured above is number 43 of 125, bound in quarter cloth. The book itself measures 24 x 15.7 cm. The slipcase measures 24.9 x 16.9 cm.

The Guardian briefly discussed the new limited edition series on 2 July 2005.

Talking It Over (Alfred A. Knopf, 1991; White Proof in Black Container)

Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes. Talking It Over. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. Pp. 275 + [3]. 21.2 x 13.6 cm.

In 1991, prior to publishing the hardback edition, Alfred A. Knopf issued a special, signed “proof” edition of Julian Barnes’s novel Talking It Over. The text is bound in white wraps with black text and is housed in a glossy, black, stiff paper slip case/container with the title and graphics printed in white.

Though booksellers routinely refer to this edtion as a “limited” or signed “uncorrected proof”, nowhere on the book or cover does it clearly state that the book is an uncorrected proof, nor is there a limitation statement. That said, this edition was clearly published prior to the Knopf hardback and used as a promotional item.

Not to be confused with the standard uncorrected proof printed in blue paper covers and sent to reviewers.

La nuit est sale | Duffy (Gallimard, 1981; French)

Notes on this edition: Dan Kavanagh. La nuit est sale | Duffy. [Paris]: Gallimard, 1981. Pp. 217 [218] + [6]. 17.8 x 10.7 cm. Translated by F.M. Watkins. Série noire. (French).

The inscription in the photo has been slightly edited to remove the names to whom Julian Barnes inscribed the copy as well as the location and date of the inscription.

The Porcupine (Jonathan Cape, 1992)

Notes on this edition: Because Jonathan Cape published Julian Barnes’s novel The Porcupine after Obsidian Press published the Bulgarian translation, this edition is listed as the “First British Edition”.

Descriptive Bibliography: First British edition – London: Jonathan Cape, 1992. £9.99.

Title Page: THE PORCUPINE | JULIAN BARNES | [Jonathan Cape device] | JONATHAN CAPE | LONDON

Collation: 20.2 x 13.9 cm. Pp. [i-vi] 1-138. [i]: ‘THE PORCUPINE’. [ii]: ‘by the same author | METROLAND | BEFORE SHE MET ME | FLAUBERT’S PARROT | STARING AT THE SUN | A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 10½ CHAPTERS | TALKING IT OVER’. [iii]: title page. [iv]: copyright page. [v]: ‘to Dimitrina’. [vi]: blank. 1-138: text.

General description: Binding 20.9 x 14 cm. Burgundy boards, gold blocked on spine. Sky blue endpapers. Burgundy dust jacket lettered in white (author) and sky blue (title). Color photograph of man carrying an umbrella on upper panel. Image is reproduced in smaller dimensions on lower panel. Jacket photo by Akira Nagamatsu with design by Peter Dyer. White jacket flaps lettered in black. Author photograph by Jillian Edelstein on back flap.

Бодливо свинче (Bodlivo svinche) | The Porcupine (Obsidian Press, 1992; Bulgarian)

Notes on this edition: Obsidian Press published the Bulgarian translation of Julian Barnes’s novel The Porcupine prior to Jonathan Cape’s U.K. edition, thus making it officially the true first edition of the novel.

While in Bulgaria to promote the translation of Flaubert’s Parrot, Barnes met his translator Dimitrina Kondeva, and they soon built a friendship. Barnes wrote to Kondeva for feedback and insights into a new novel he was writing, The Porcupine, which centered on a fictional country similar to Bulgaria. In addition to translating The Porcupine, Kondeva later became Barnes’s Bulgarian publisher at Obsidian Press. She describes and republishes much of her correspondence with Barnes in the collection Julian Barnes: Contemporary Critical Perspectives. [Kondeva, Dimitrina. “The Story of Julian Barnes’s The Porcupine: An Epistolary ½ Chapter.” Eds. Sebastian Groes and Peter Childs. Continuum, 2011. pp. 81-91.]

Barnes scholar Vanessa Guignery has written an insightful account of Barnes’s development of The Porcupine based on an analysis of his correspondence with Kondeva. [Guignery, Vanessa. “Untangling the Intertwined Threads of Fiction and Reality in The Porcupine (1992) by Julian Barnes.” in Pre and Post-publication Itineraries of the Contemporary Novel in English. Publibook, 2007: 49-71.]

Descriptive Bibliography: Бодливо свинче. софия: обсидиан, 1992. (Bodlivo svinche. Sofia: Obsidian Press, 1992). Translated by Dimitrina Kondeva. ISBN: 954-8240-01-7

Collation: Pp. [1-6] 7-17 [18-19] 20-21 [22-23] 24-25 [26-27] 28-29 [30-31] 32-127 [128]. [1]: ‘Джулиан | Барнс | Бодливо | свинче | обсидиан’. [2]: blank. [3]: title page. [4]: copyright page. [5]: ‘Hа Димитрина’. [6]: blank. 7-8: introduction. 9-127: text. [128]: ‘Джулиан Барнс | Бодливо свинче | Английска | [additional text in Cyrillic, as pictured above]’.

Thirty-Seventh Antiquarian Book Fair 1996

Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes. “Introduction.” Thirty-Seventh Antiquarian Book Fair, 1996. London: Antiquarian Booksellers Association, 1996. Pp. 128. 23.5 x 16.9 cm.

In 1996, the Grosvenor House in London hosted the Antiquarian Booksellers Association’s Thirty-Seventh Antiquarian Book Fair, and Julian Barnes wrote the introduction to the fair catalog (pp. 5-7). His essay discusses book collecting and the idealistic notion of “completeness”.

Of the limited number of catalogs published for this occasion, one hundred were signed by Barnes at the end of his introduction. Each signed copy was numbered, as pictured.

Putting the Boot In | Uncorrected Proof (Jonathan Cape, 1985)

Notes on this edition: Dan Kavanagh. Putting the Boot In. London: Jonathan Cape, 1985. Pp. 192. 19.7 x 12.9 cm. Uncorrected Proof in red wraps with black lettering. Provisional publication date listed as “29 August 1985”.

In 1985, Jonathan Cape published Julian Barnes’s third crime novel under the pseudonym of Dan Kavanagh. The novel’s plot centered on misdeeds related to a English Football Club. While Duffy and Fiddle City were eventually published in the U.S. as paperbacks, Putting the Boot In was not optioned for U.S. publication.