BALLARD, J. G. Empire of the Sun [&] The Kindness of Women

BOTH VOLUMES INSCRIBED BY BALLARD

Large 8vos., 2 vols; black and red linson boards, respectively; lettered in gilt to spines; with unclipped pictorial dustwrappers by Pat Doyle and Peter Maynard; pp. [x], 3-278, [ii]; [viii], 9-286, [ii]; both very good to near-fine copies, vol I with some light toning to page edges and endpapers; vol II lightly bumped to foot of spine; the wrappers clean and bright, just a couple of very small marks and creases; with the spine of vol I unfaded, as is sometimes found. 

First editions both, and both copies signed by the author to the title page. To ‘Empire’, Ballard adds the inscription ‘To Nigel / Very Many Thanks.” 

Ballard began his career in the genre of Science Fiction, with short story collections appearing in New Worlds and Science Fantasy magazines. It was, however, in 1984 that he first won critical acclaim for Empire of the Sun, a semi-autobiographical novel which takes as its focus the experiences of a British boy living and growing up in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation. Ballard and his family had moved into the centre of the city in 1937, but after the battle of Hong Kong the Imperial Japanese Army occupied the International Settlement and imprisoned its Allied civilians, sending Ballard’s family, along with many others, to the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Centre. They lived there for the remainder of the war, and it was this very displacement that formed the basis for the novel. “I don't think you can go through the experience of war without one's perceptions of the world being forever changed”, Ballard later wrote, “the reassuring stage-set that everyday reality in the suburban West presents to us is torn down; you see the ragged scaffolding, and then you see the truth beyond that, and it can be a frightening experience. I have—I won't say happy—[but] not unpleasant memories of the camp... I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on—but, at the same time, we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!" Empire was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. In 1987 the book was adapted into an award-winning film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Tom Stoppard. In 1991 Ballard released the sequel, The Kindness of Women, which follows his life from childhood through to adulthood as he travels to England, studies medicine, becomes a pilot, marries and has children, all while attempting to navigate the impact that his early childhood experiences have had on his views of violence, sex and death. 

A smart set of Ballard’s most famous works. 

SKU: 1800211