"Shogun. A Novel of Japan", complete in 2 volumes by James Clavell, published by Atheneum, New York, 1975. 1st BC Edition with "Book Club Edition" imprinted on the front flaps of the dust jackets.

Original dust jackets [some soiling, wear, edge creases: see photos], hard boards with black lettering and decorations on the front boards and spines, 5.3/4" x 8.1/2"; a little wear, the endpapers are orange maps; 1,101 pages, very good condition.

Beginning in feudal Japan some months before the critical Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Shogun gives an account of the rise of the daimyo "Toranaga" (based upon the actual Tokugawa Ieyasu). Toranaga's rise to the shogunate is seen through the eyes of the English sailor John Blackthorne, called Anjin ("Pilot") by the Japanese, whose fictional heroics are loosely based on the historical exploits of William Adams. The book is divided into six sections, preceded by a prologue in which Blackthorne is shipwrecked near Izu, then alternating between locations in Anjiro, Mishima, Osaka, Yedo, and Yokohama.

"I can't remember when a novel has seized my mind like this one... It's almost impossible not to continue to read Shogun once having opened it." [Webster Schott, The New York Times]

The novel was adapted as a nine-hour television miniseries in 1980. It starred Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune, Yoko Shimada, and John Rhys-Davies. This was edited into a two-hour theatrical release. There have been three computer games based on the Shogun novel. The tabletop game publisher FASA published a boardgame 'James Clavell's Shogun' in 1983.

James Clavell, the son of a Royal Navy family, was educated in Portsmouth before, as a young artillery officer, he was captured by the Japanese at the Fall of Singapore. It was on this experience that his bestselling novel KING RAT was based. He maintained this oriental interest in his other great works: TAI-PAN, SHOGUN, NOBLE HOUSE and GAI JIN. Clavell lived for many years in Vancouver and Los Angeles, before settling in Switzerland, where he died in 1994.

US: Priority (c 2-4 days) --------- $12.50
Canada: Priority (c. 2-6 weeks) - $32.50
World: Priority (c.2-8 weeks) --- $44.50