(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1957).

FIRST EDITION. A classic work of fiction by one of the greatest existentialist writers of modern times, grappling with the conflict between the conscience of the modern psyche and the existence of evil. “Masterful in style and form, the narrative of The Fall is at once elegant, mordant, brilliant with aphorism and paradox.”
“In a shady bar in Amsterdam, the man who does the talking in The Fall is indulging in a calculated confession. He recalls his past life as a respected Parisian lawyer, a pleader of noble causes, secure in his self esteem, privately a libertine, yet apparently immune to judgment - the portrait of a modern man. The irony of the recital predicts the downfall. Inescapable, it comes in the narrator’s intense discovery, in the space of one terrible and unforgettable instant, that no man is innocent and no man may therefore judge others from a standpoint of righteousness.”-Knopf. Item #34794

First American Edition. 8vo, publisher’s original binding of brown paper boards blind-tooled with star pattern, backed with blue cloth, gilt lettered, in the original dustjacket with photographic portrait. 148 pp. A fine copy in a dustjacket with light edgewear and mellowing.