The Time of the Hero. Translated by Lysander Kemp.

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First edition in English, first printing, signed by the author on the title page. This was Vargas Llosa's first novel, originally published in Spanish by Seix Barral in 1963 as La ciudad y los perros. It won the 1962 Premio Biblioteca Breve and the 1963 Premio de la Critica Espanola, and was turned into a film by Francisco Lombardi in 1985. The Time of the Hero was born of Vargas Llosa's experience of the Leoncio Prado military academy in Lima, where his father sent him at the age of 14 in the hopes of curtailing his artistic ambitions: "My father was terrified by my literary inclinations - he thought me a total failure, a bohemian. But with Leoncio Prado he gave me my first subject" (quoted in Jaggi). Copies of the book were ceremoniously burned in the grounds of the academy, which Vargas Llosa recalled as "a window on the real country, Peruvian society in miniature. an explosive climate where everybody was prejudiced, with tremendous tension and violence" (ibid). Maya Jaggi, "Fiction and hyper-reality", The Guardian, 16 March 2002. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Spine ends a touch sunned, a few marks to edges, fore edge slightly browned, one corner just worn, trivial ink mark to p. [v]. A near-fine copy in jacket, unclipped, 1 cm tear to one corner and a single nick to foot of spine, spine panel lightly soiled and creased, head of rear panel a little creased, light toning to edges else a bright example. Seller Inventory # 156530

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