Seuss, The Seven Lady Godivas.
- Condition : good, clean, dustjacket shows minor shelf wear and a small marginal tear, otherwise very good.
- Illustrations : numerous partly full-page colour illustrations.
The Seven Ladies Godivas is the fourth book by Dr Seuss and one of only two written for adults, the other being You're Only Old Once! A Book for Obsolete Children. It is relatively obscure and its first publication in 1939 was considered a failure. The book remained in stock until 1987, when it was reissued due to 'overwhelming demand', only to fail again. It is claimed that this failure was one of the factors that led Seuss to make the decision to continue writing only for children, claiming that "adults are obsolete children, and to hell with them."
This is Seuss's distorted version of the legend of Lady Godiva, the wife of an earl who roamed the streets of Coventry naked to oppose his oppressive taxes. It is assumed that the sole bystander to the act, nicknamed Peeping Tom, was blinded or killed on the spot.
In The Seven Lady Godivas: True Facts Concerning History's Barest Family, there is not one lady and one peeping Tom, but seven naked sisters and their respective lovers, the seven peeping Tom brothers. After their father dies on his horse, they vow to postpone their marriages until they can discover the noble truths of the horse, all based on equestrian idioms: "don't look a given horse in the mouth", "put the cart before the horse", "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink", "lucky horseshoe", "different coloured horse", "never change horses in the middle of the stream" and "don't close the barn door after the horse has been stolen".
Condition | Used - Good |
---|---|
Language | United Kingdom |
Artist / Illustrator | Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) |
Illustrated | Yes |
Publicaton Date | Jan 1, 1987 |
Year | 1987 |
Author / Cartographer / Photographer | Geisel Theodor Seuss |
First edition | No |
Signed edition | No |
Signed binding | No |
Armorial binding | No |
Binding / Format | Hardcover |
Size | 26 x 19 cm |