ללטוש עיניים לשמש | Staring at the Sun (Zmora-Bitan, 1993; Hebrew)


Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes. ללטוש עיניים לשמש (Liltosh enayim la-shemesh) | Staring at the Sun. Tel Aviv: Zmora-Bitan, 1993. Pp. 201 + [3]. 21 x 13.3 cm. Translated by Yair Borla. (Hebrew).

Staring at the Sun (London Limited Editions, 1986)


Notes on this edition: The London Limited Edition of Staring at the Sun is the first limited edition produced of Julian Barnes’s works. Limited to 150 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, 1986. £25.00. 150 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.

Collation: 21.5 x 13.7 cm. Text identical to the first Jonathan Cape edition, except the front page [i-ii] has been cut and two new sheets tipped in. Sheet One (front): ‘JULIAN BARNES | STARING AT | THE SUN | [asterisk] | LONDON | LIMITED | EDITIONS’. (verso): blank. Sheet Two (front): ‘One of 150 numbered copies of the | First Edition of | Staring at the Sun | signed by the author and | specially bound. | No. [hand numbered] | [author signature]’. (verso): blank.

General description: Binding 22.2 x 14 cm. Marble paper over boards, dark brown cloth quarter binding with glassine dustwrapper. White endpapers.

Staring at the Sun (Jonathan Cape, 1986)


Notes on this edition: Julian Barnes’s fourth literary novel Staring at the Sun examines the ordinary life of Jean Serjeant from her childhood in the 1920s through her adulthood to the 2020s.

Descriptive Bibliography: First edition: London: Jonathan Cape, 1986. £9.95. Print run: 8000.

Title Page: STARING | AT THE SUN | Julian Barnes | [Jonathan Cape device] | JONATHAN CAPE | THIRTY-TWO BEDFORD SQUARE LONDON

Copyright Page: First published 1986 | Copyright © 1986 by Julian Barnes | Jonathan Cape Ltd | 32 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3EL | British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data | Barnes, Julian | Staring at the sun. | I. Title | 823’.914[F] PR6052.A6657 | ISBN 0 224 02414 0 | Typeset by Computape (Pickering) Ltd, North Yorkshire | Printed in Great Britain by | Ebenezer Baylis and Son Ltd | The Trinity Press, Worcester and London

Collation: 21.5 x 13.7 cm. Pp. [i-viii, 1-4] 5-63 [64-66] 67-135 [136-138] 139-195 [196-200]. [i-ii]: blank. [iii]: ‘STARING AT THE SUN’. [iv]: ‘by the same author | METROLAND | BEFORE SHE MET ME | FLAUBERT’S PARROT’. [v]: title page. [vi]: copyright page. [vii]: ‘to Pat’. [viii]: blank. 1-2: text. [3]: ‘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’. [4]: blank. 5-63: text. [64]: blank. [65]: ‘TWO | Three wise men – are you serious? | graffito, c.1984’. [66]: blank. 67-135: text. [136]: blank. [137]: ‘THREE | Immortality is no learned question | Kierkegaard’. [138]: blank. 139-195: text. [196-200]: blank.

General description: Binding 22.2 x 14 cm. Dark brown boards, gold blocked on spine. White endpapers. Brown dust jacket lettered in white on upper panel and orange and white on lower panel. Color illustration of the sun setting on an ocean by Cathy Wood. Author photograph by Allan Titmuss on back flap.