Gay Prelude

London: Robert Hale & Company. Very Good+ in Good dj. 1937. First Edition. Hardcover. DETAILS NEEDED. [book is just lightly shelfworn, a bit of dust-soiling to top of text block, "FILE COPY" stamped in large letters on half-title page, "G5" written in red pencil at bottom corner of both ffep and half-title; jacket has a couple of small chips at top of front panel, soiling to rear panel, shallow chipping at spine ends, one small tear-hole near bottom of spine, tiny bit of paper loss at lower right corner of front panel (unfortunately affecting the jacket artist's signature)]. Comic novel about "the outrageously amusing adventures of a young Englishman who landed in Australia with very little money and with no introductions." But he did meet a girl on the boat over (of course), and soon after landing gets introduced to the girl's "irresponsible sister," whose husband turns out to be the president of a newly-formed "Purity League." Romantic entanglements, embarrassment and scandal force our hero "to take refuge from his pursuers in a very curious ménage in one of Sydney's less salubrious districts." Worth noting for classical scholars: the book's protagonist is named Ulysses, and each chapter is prefaced with a two-line quotation from "The Odyssey." I will leave it to you to ferret out the deeper meanings of these facts. .