First UK edition of Baldwin's second novel, a story of love and and fear that first revealed Baldwin's full capacities as "the greatest American prose stylist of his generation" (T�ib�n). GIOVANNI'S ROOM is one of the great twentieth century studies of masculinity and sexual identity; in his creation of an expatriate American whose desires are weighted with ambivalence, shame, and anger, Baldwin proves himself a worthy successor to Henry James. The novel, Baldwin said in a 1980 interview, tells "what happens if you are so afraid that you finally cannot love anybody. That's what the book is about." 7.75'' x 5''. Original brown cloth. In original unclipped (15s) dust jacket designed by William Belcher. 220, [2] pages. Offsetting and faint foxing to endpapers. Light edgewear to dust jacket; short closed tears to rear panel. Near fine in very good plus jacket.