-- Alan Hollinghurst's Landmark Debut Novel. First Edition, Second Impression. Very Good clean copy in Very Good Dust Jacket --

Hollinghurst's debut, widely regarded as one of the most important works of late twentieth-century British fiction. Published at a pivotal moment in modern literary and social history, The Swimming-Pool Library captures the freedoms, excesses and anxieties of gay life in London immediately before the AIDS crisis transformed the landscape it depicts. Bold, intelligent and sharply observed, the novel announced the arrival of a major literary talent and established many of the themes that would define Hollinghurst's later Booker Prize-winning career. The novel follows the young aristocrat William Beckwith through a summer of casual encounters, social privilege and urban exploration in 1980s London. After a chance meeting with the elderly Lord Nantwich, William becomes the custodian of the older man's journals and is drawn into a hidden history of homosexuality stretching back through the inter-war years and the final decades of the British Empire. As the narratives of the two men intertwine, Hollinghurst examines class, desire, memory and the changing experience of gay identity in Britain with remarkable wit, candour and literary sophistication. Praised on publication for its elegance, humour and honesty, The Swimming-Pool Library remains a landmark novel whose influence and reputation have continued to grow. A particularly well-preserved example of an increasingly sought-after modern first edition. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket.