Rosemary’s Baby. 1st British edition

London: Michael Joseph, 1967.Publishers hardcover with worn and repaired but not price clipped jacket that shows the original 25/- net price. Wrappers are now protected. The boards are rubbed at corners but sound and solid. Inside the book is clean throughout. In all a very good copy

First UK edition, Rosemary’s Baby became the topbest-selling horror novel of the 1960s, selling over four million copies. The high popularity of the novel was a catalyst for a “horror boom”, and horror fiction achieved enormous commercial success in its wake. It has been stated that “Rosemary’s Baby is one of the most perfectly crafted thrillers ever written”. In 1968, the novel was adapted as a film of the same name, starring Mia Farrow, with John Cassavetes as Guy. Ruth Gordon, who played Minnie Castevet, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Roman Polanski, who wrote and directed the film, was nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. The novel by Ira Levin is not exactly a feminist work of art, but more a chilling exploration of patriarchal control and its impact on a woman’s bodily autonomy. Rosemary’s passivity and her inability to recognize or challenge the patriarchal forces at play contribute to the sense of dread and helplessness that permeates the narrative. The novel’s bleakness and terror are, in part, due to the absence of a feminist perspective that could offer Rosemary a path to resistance or empowerment