Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (Proof copy) signed by Louis De Bernieres 1994

London: Secker & Warburg, 1994
 
8vo., illustrative card wraps, featuring a cover design by Graham Bence (not stated); pp. [xii], 436; a fine copy, edges of wraps with a couple of very unobtrusive marks; some offsetting of the print to the inside of rear cover; wraps prone to splaying if not kept pressed; otherwise fine. 
 
Publisher’s proof of the first edition, signed and dated by De Berniers to the title page in the year of publication. In this proof edition, the ‘Acknowledgments’ is left blank, with the text later printed (in the first edition) to the final page. 
 
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was De Berniers’s fourth novel, set on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the Second World War. The story follows the eponymous Captain, a young Italian officer who arrives in Greece as part of the occupying forces. As the daughter of the local doctor draws close to this new visitor, the author explores the contrast between blossoming love and the horrors of war.  
 
In 2001 the novel was adapted for film, with Nicolas Cage as the Italian Captain Corelli, John Hurt as Dr Iannis, and Penélope Cruz as his daughter, Pelagia. De Berniers disapproved of the adaptation, famously claiming: "It would be impossible for a parent to be happy about its baby's ears being put on backwards."
 
Rare signed.