Books

First edition, signed limited issue, number 30 of 100 copies signed by the author, printed on handmade paper, and attractively bound in quarter goatskin; a further 12 copies were in full goatskin. Rushdie's fourth novel has became a major work in the magical realist canon and, through the international furore it sparked, "one of the most significant events in postwar literary history" (Kureishi). The New York Times spoke highly of its literary merit soon after publication: "In its entirety, it resembles only itself, but there are, in its parts, strands and shades of resemblance: to Sterne, for one, in the joys of digression; to Swift in scathingness of political satire; to the fairy and folktales of the Brothers Grimm, to Ovid's Metamorphoses, The Arabian Nights, Thomas Mann's Transposed Heads, [and more]". Rushdie, who had long been under police protection since its publication, was attacked for writing the novel in 2022. He reflected on this in Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (2024). Octavo. Original dark blue quarter goatskin, spine lettered in gilt, blue cloth sides ruled in gilt, patterned endpapers. Bump to spine head, faint mark on bottom edge. A near-fine copy. Hanif Kureishi, "Looking back at Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses", The Guardian, 14 Sept. 2012; A. G. Mojtabai, "Magical Mystery Pilgrimage", New York Times, 29 Jan. 1989.

The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. It was met with significant controversy due to its portrayal of Islamic themes which led Rushdie to face death threats and a fatwa calling for his assassination.