Thomas Harris "Hannibal Rising" Slipcased Signed Limited Edition No. 266 of 350 [Very Fine]

Personally signed by Thomas Harris and Tom Bagshaw

SIGNED LIMITED EDITION OF ONLY 350 PRODUCED

Suntup Editions 2023. Thomas Harris "Hannibal Rising". The Numbered edition of 350 copies is a full Japanese cloth binding with a blind stamped cover, and a foil stamped leather spine label. End-sheets are French marbled and the edition is printed offset on premium Mohawk Via. It is housed in a brocade wrapped slipcase with cloth ends, and the edition is signed by Thomas Harris and Tom Bagshaw. Very Fine without any flaws. 

About the Editions (From the publisher)

The signed limited edition of Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris is presented in three states: Artist, Numbered and Lettered. The editions measure 6” x 9” and feature six full color illustrations by Tom Bagshaw. The text pages are set in Escrow and Zigarre Script. The Numbered and Lettered editions are signed by the author and the artist, and the Artist edition is signed by the artist.

Hannibal Rising

Hannibal Rising is a novel by American author Thomas Harris, published in 2006. It is a prequel to his three previous books featuring his most famous character, the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The novel was released with an initial printing of at least 1.5 million copies and met with a mixed critical response. Audiobook versions have also been released, with Harris reading the text. The novel was adapted (by Harris himself) into a film of the same name in 2007, directed by Peter Webber. Producer Dino De Laurentis implied around the time of the novel's release that he had coerced Harris into writing it under threat of losing control over the Hannibal Lecter character, accounting for the perceived diminished quality from Harris' previous books.

Twenty-five years after Hannibal Lecter first invaded the imaginations of countless readers worldwide in Red Dragon, author Thomas Harris crafted Hannibal Rising, the origin story of his iconic cannibalistic serial killer.

Hannibal Rising introduces us to eight-year-old Hannibal Lecter, wide-eyed and innocent; a brother to his younger sister Mischa, and a devoted son to his Lithuanian count father and Italian aristocrat mother. But when their loving home is bombed by the Germans in 1945, killing their parents, Hannibal and Mischa are left to fend for themselves.

In the aftermath, Hannibal witnesses an unspeakable act of cruelty that will haunt him forever. Traumatized and orphaned, Lecter finds care in the home of his uncle and aunt, but vengeance consumes his thoughts. A brutal tale filled with violence and beauty, Hannibal Rising is a story of innocence lost and how insufferable tragedy begets depraved monsters.

The fourth and final book in the Hannibal series, Hannibal Rising was first published in 2006. It was adapted by Thomas Harris into a film directed by Peter Webber the following year.

From Publishers Weekly

Twenty-five years after Hannibal Lecter, a cross between Professor Moriarty and Jack the Ripper, first invaded the imaginations of countless readers worldwide in Red Dragon, bestseller Harris has crafted an unmemorable prequel that's intended to explain the origins of Lecter's evil. Fans of Harris's previous Lecter novel, Hannibal (1999), already know the major trauma that transformed the young Lecter-the murder of his beloved younger sister, Mischa, during WWII-which the author describes in more grisly detail. Lecter also has an unusual love interest, his uncle's Japanese wife, Lady Murasaki, but the bulk of the narrative focuses on Lecter's quest for revenge on those he holds responsible for Mischa's death. Unfortunately, the prose and plotting lack the suspenseful power of Red Dragon or The Silence of the Lambs, and will leave many feeling that with such a masterful monster as Lecter, less is more. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“There are images of morbid beauty here.... Harris' handling of the wartime violence is also impressive, as swift and vicious as the blitzkrieg itself.”—Los Angeles Times “Gripping detail.... [Harris] moves the story along at an impressively fast clip.”—Boston Globe

Thomas Harris 

William Thomas Harris III (born September 22, 1940) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, most notably The Silence of the Lambs, which became only the third film in Academy Awards history to sweep the Oscars in all of the five major categories.

Thomas Harris began his writing career covering crime in the United States and Mexico, and was a reporter and editor for the Associated Press in New York City.

Approach to writing and critical reception

Fellow novelist Stephen King remarked that if writing is sometimes tedious for other authors, to Harris it is like "writhing on the floor in agonies of frustration", because for Harris, "the very act of writing is a kind of torment". Novelist John Dunning said of Harris, "All he is is a talent of the first rank." In 2019, he elaborated on his process, as well as the difficulty, describing it as "passive [...], sometimes you really have to shove and grunt and sweat. Some days you go to your office and you're the only one who shows up, none of the characters show up, and you sit there by yourself, feeling like an idiot. And some days everybody shows up ready to work. You have to show up at your office every day. If an idea comes by, you want to be there to get it in."

About the artist

Tom Bagshaw

Tom Bagshaw works as a commercial illustrator under the moniker Mostlywanted. His talents are sought after by clients in fashion, advertising, editorial and publishing, and include Saatchi & Saatchi, Sony, the BBC, The Daily Telegraph, GQ, Scholastic and Random House.