"Life as a Parable" – Copy with Thirteen Sketches by Pinchas Sadeh – Gift to Literary Critic Aza Zvi – With the ...

"Life as a Parable" – Copy with Thirteen Sketches by Pinchas Sadeh – Gift to Literary Critic Aza Zvi – With the Original Dust Jacket
HaChaim KeMashal [Life as a Parable], by Pinchas Sadeh. Tel-Aviv: Sheshet, 1958. First edition.
A unique copy of the novel "Life as a Parable", created by Pinchas Sadeh for the literary critic Aza Zvi. Thirteen leaves with pen sketches by Sadeh, seven of which are signed "Pinchas 1960", were added to this copy (tipped-in), creating an illustrated version of the novel.
Sadeh's illustrations for "Life as a Parable" were published in the book "42 Illustrations and a Diary – the Writing of Life as a Parable" (Proza ItonSifrut, 1980); according to Sadeh, they were created "out of a sudden sense of remembrance… to leave a precise impression of the figures, places and events as they occurred in reality". The illustrations in this copy are different than those published in the book. They were drawn in a freer hand – some seem to be initial drafts of the published illustrations and some illustrate different scenes than the ones illustrated in "42 Illustrations and a Diary".
On page 228 four lines are marked, with an arrow pointing at a higher spot.
"Life as a Parable", Pinchas Sadeh's debut novel, was first published by the small publishing house "Sheshet", after being rejected by large publishing houses. The novel, which introduced a conflicted and complicated spiritual world, expressing reservations regarding nationalism, revolutionized Israeli literature and soon became a cult book.
The literary critic Aza Zvi was a close friend of Sadeh and one of the first to acknowledge the importance of this novel. Even before she finished reading the book, she decided to meet its (still anonymous) author and came to his apartment on Aza St. in Jerusalem. Sadeh was not home at the time and Zvi waited for him on the porch, reading the novel she had not yet finished. The two eventually became close friends and Sadeh liked to remind her of the time she unexpectedly appeared "like a bird" on his porch (see: "About Aza Zvi" [Hebrew] by Moshe Ganan – an article published in the blog "Bustan HaPerot").
With the original dust jacket (glued to the binding). Enclosed is an additional copy of the front dust jacket.
461 pp, approx. 19 cm. The book in good-fair condition. The illustrations in good condition. Stains. Approx. twenty pages at the beginning of the book are partly detached. Ownership inscription of Aza Zvi on front endpaper. The dust-jacket with small open tears to edges; without spine. Blemishes and wear to spine and boards.