The Black House.

PAUL THEROUX

Publication: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974, Boston

First edition. Fine in dust jacket. After a decade in Africa, Alfred Munday, a British anthropologist, is told he has a heart condition. He returns to England with his wife Emma and moves to a remote area of Dorset to write a social history of the Bwamba tribe. Alfred's marriage sits on precarious ground, and he and his wife have just taken on a domestic disaster: the home they leased site-unseen--Bowood House, "the Black House" to locals--is ruinous, inhospitable, and apparently haunted. Almost immediately upon moving into the home, the two sense the haunting presence of a lovely woman ... Caroline ... and she initiates a torrid, reckless affair with Munday, and his wife begins to suffer from unexplained maladies.

Inventory Number: 684