Author: F. Britten Austin
Title: The Red Flag (Signed 1st)
Publication: London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1932
Edition: First
Description: Hardcover. 400. F. Britten Austin (1885-1941) was an English author, best known for
The Last Outpost (1935), Buried Treasure (1921) and A Woman Redeemed (1927), and stories of speculative fiction.
From a NY Times review of the first US edition:
Using the red flag as a symbol of revolt throughout the ages, Mr. F. Britten Austin has written twelve stories depicting the history of the revolutionary spirit in human society over a matter of 4,000 years. The first chronicle is laid in ancient Egypt in the year 2220 B. C. An idealistic and humane young Pharaoh resolved to bring happiness to his people, to relieve the poverty and misery of the poor, to hold in check the avarice of the rich, and to consolidate and maintain peace between northern and southern Egypt. The Pharaoh's well-meant social experiments, uncomprehended by his subjects and thwarted by his advisers, succeed only in plunging the land into greater misery. They fail, Mr. Austin would seem to say, for the same reason that the communistic world republic of the years of 1977-2036 A. D. fails- because of the stubborn and deeply rooted individualism of human nature. Thus “The Red Flag,” if it has any coherent argument at all, is an argument against revolution- not that Mr. Austin is lacking in sympathy for the genuine idealism which often underlies the revolutionary spirit, but because he seems to feel that the great and self-denying leaders of revolutions are un- able to inspire their followers with a similar elevation of spirit.
This copy is very good in black cloth with red titles on the spine. Corners and spine ends bumped. Titles on the spine a little faded. No other marks or damage. Inscribed by the author on the ffep and dated Nov. 4, 1935. Very Good.
HE25.
Seller ID: B1178