Monday, May 29, 2017

Paperback 992: The Tents of Wickedness / Peter De Vries (Signet D1827)

Paperback 992: Signet D1827 (1st ptg, 1960)

Title: The Tents of Wickedness
Author: Peter De Vries
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Condition: 7/10 (crisp and bright, but binding's a bit wonky)
Estimated value: $8-10

SignetD1827
Best things about this cover:
  • I think she's supposed to be sitting on that branch (?), but I like to think she's working the door at the Tents of Wickedness: "Look, you wanna get in, you're gonna have to lose the clothes. Get naked or scram, I ain't got all day!"
  • Seriously, I love her, her defiant attitude, and all her convenient foliage.
  • "... a fancy-free girl who believes in free expression, free verse and free love"—I'm 2/3 with you, sweetheart!

SignetD1827bc
Best things about this back cover:
  • Bah, rehash!
  • "... and wild for to hold, though I seem tame."—Wyatt
  • Cover copy makes author sound irreverent and saucy, whereas author photo makes him look like someone who would burn Sears catalogues to save the world from masturbatory thoughts.

Page 123~

She sat on her side of the bed, with a book of her own in which she was underlining passages heavily with a pencil. I drew her skirt up and pressed a cheek to her thighs, murmuring a declaration in her favor.

"A declaration in her favor" is beautiful and merciful in its openness. Let us imagine (or refuse to imagine). It's better than whatever specific utterance could possibly go there.

~RP

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3 comments:

lrf said...

Pretty sure there has never been a bigger gap between how funny the dust jacket says he is and how funny I think he is than for Peter DeVries. Not sure I ever finished one of his books, but I'm pretty sure I started at least two.

Anonymous said...

He looks serious because he looks a little like Laurence Harvey in Manchurian Candidate.
Ditto on not so funny, didn't finish the only one of his books I tried.
Susan

Farceur said...

His movie Reuben, Reuben was enjoyable.