{"product_id":"2026200010525-secondhand-pretty-creatures","title":"Pretty Creatures","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good. Jacket: Worn\/faded - no tears.  Page Condition: Good. Markings: none. Binding condition: Good. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFew writers of the early twentieth century possessed William Gerhardie's gift for capturing the absurdity of human longing with such delicate, comic precision. Pretty Creatures is a collection of short fiction that chronicles the restless lives of characters caught between desire and disillusionment, rendered in prose that is at once wickedly funny and achingly melancholic. Set against the backdrop of a fading European world, the stories present a gallery of souls adrift — romantics undone by their own illusions, idealists confronted by an indifferent universe.\n\nGerhardie, long championed by literary luminaries including Evelyn Waugh, H.G. Wells, and Edith Wharton, wrote with an ironic detachment that anticipates the modernist sensibility while remaining thoroughly accessible. This edition, prefaced by Michael Holroyd, argues for a reassessment of a writer unjustly neglected by later generations. Holroyd's introduction illuminates the biographical currents running beneath the comic surface, making this volume an essential entry point into one of English literature's most singular — and undervalued — voices. Whether encountered for the first time or revisited, Gerhardie's work leaves the reader asking why the world was so slow to catch up with him.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49130702831835,"sku":"2026200010525-SECONDHAND","price":40.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/c67a10a2-a42c-42ad-9af1-07e928174d9a.png?v=1786588928","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200010525-secondhand-pretty-creatures","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}