“POOR GRENDEL’S HAD AN ACCIDENT… SO MAY YOU ALL”

GARDNER, John. Grendel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971. Octavo, original purple cloth, original dust jacket. $900.

First edition of Gardner’s third novel, his “violent, inspiring, awesome, terrifying” reimagining of “Beowulf” from the monster’s point of view.

"Grendel, which daringly retells the Beowulf legend from the viewpoint of the monster whom Beowulf kills, is a complex and brilliantly styled parable of consciousness, the consciousness of death and the compensatory urge to create lasting monuments of the mind" (Vinson, 493). "The world, Gardner seems to be suggesting in his violent, inspiring, awesome, terrifying narrative, has to defeat its Grendels, yet somehow, he hints… that world is a poorer place when men and their monsters cannot coexist" (Christian Science Monitor).

Dust jacket with slightest fading to spine, minimal soiling, light creasing to flaps. An attractive copy in very nearly fine condition.