1927 · London
by Powys, T.F.; George Charlton, illustrator
London: Chatto & Windus, 1927. Octavo (23 x 15cm.), [6], 315 pages. Illustrated frontispiece and plates by George Charlton. First edition, number 207 of 660 copies; signed by the author on the colophon. An allegorical novel, set in the fictional town of Folly Down. The title character is outwardly a wine salesman, but appears to be God in disguise. The title is drawn from a line in Jane Austen's Emma, "She believed he had been drinking too much of Mr. Weston's good wine, and felt sure that he would want to be talking nonsense." Original black cloth, top edge gilt, in unclipped, off-white printed dust jacket. Jacket lightly age-toned and soiled. Some foxing to text block edges and to endpapers. Generally very good. With the bookplate of Willis J. Pells to the front pastedown. (Inventory #: 5916)