Books

1973. London: Jonathan Cape, 1973. 8vo., original blue boards, lettered in gilt to spine with publisher's device to foot; stylised dust jacket with wrap-around image designed by Bill Botten; pp. [vi], 7-224; spine tips lightly compressed; else a near-fine copy in very good dust jacket which is a touch sunned to the spine and lower panel; lightly creased to edges and along folds; the tiniest touch of discreet blue pen to restore head and foot of spine. First edition. Adapted into a film in 1996 by David Cronenberg, starring James Spader and Holly Hunter. A highly controversial work, exploring the experiences of a group of car-crash fetishists who become sexually aroused by staging and participating in car accidents, inspired by the famous crashes of celebrities. Unsurprisingly, opinion was highly divided upon publication, with the New York Times writing "hands-down, the most repulsive book I've yet to come across" and another reviewer returning the verdict "This author is…

Crash is a novel by English author J. G. Ballard, first published in 1973. It is a story about symphorophilia; specifically car-crash sexual fetishism: its protagonists become sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car-crashes.