Description
This first edition of The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins was published by Gollancz in 1954. Signed by the author.
The Story:
The Tortoise and the Hare is a 1954 domestic novel by English author Elizabeth Jenkins that subtly dissects the slow, painful disintegration of a marriage. The story follows Imogen Gresham, a beautiful and sensitive younger woman who finds herself increasingly sidelined by her demanding, successful barrister husband, Evelyn. In a brilliant, ironic subversion of Aesop’s classic fable, Evelyn is drawn away not by a younger or more glamorous rival, but by their plain, middle-aged, and fiercely independent neighbor, Blanche Silcox, whose steady and practical nature ultimately wins his devotion over Imogen’s gentle passivity.
The Author:
Elizabeth Jenkins (1905–2010) was a renowned English novelist and biographer known for her psychological insight and detailed historical works.
Over a 75-year literary career, she wrote a dozen acclaimed novels—such as Harriet (1934) and The Tortoise and the Hare (1953)—alongside celebrated biographies of literary and historical figures like Queen Elizabeth I.
