Vanity's Price ~ E. Yolland

I am pleased to announce that the final Nezu Press title of 2024 will be Vanity's Price by E. Yolland. This new edition of the novel—its first republication since it first appeared in 1900—includes the essay ‘In Search of E. Yolland’ (by me), which originally appeared in Mistress Bridget (Nezu Press, 2023).

So, what's it all about... Alfie?

According to family legend, in every generation of the Ainslie family one child is born heartless, ‘in sad and bitter memory of a beautiful ancestress’ who ‘played fast and loose with men’s hearts’ and so neglected her baby daughter that the poor infant died.

Clarice Ainslie is utterly heartless; she cares for nobody but herself. She is also terrified of everything old and determined to remain young forever, so she agrees to become the guinea pig for Dr Head’s ‘Arrested Age’ experimental treatment. Far from being put off by the extremely high financial cost of the treatment, the doctor’s frank description of what she will have to endure—including the removal of all her teeth and virtual imprisonment within his home—or the length of time it will take to complete the process, Clarice forges ahead without giving any of it much thought. But there is a price to pay for such obsessive vanity… and it is a high one.

According to The Graphic (September 1900)...‘The novel contains many excellent morals, concerning the vanity of Vanity, the expediency of kindness to dumb animals, the inexpediency of joining murder-societies, the imprudence of trusting to quacks, and the folly of being born without brains.’

Published: 20 November 2024.
ISBH: 978-1-917113-05-2.
Case laminate hardback, 22.86mm x 15.24cm (6" x 9"), 176 pages.

The book is available to pre-order from the Nezu Press store (please click here). Alternatively, it will be available from the usual online retailers, and you can order it from bricks-and-mortar stores. It is already at Amazon UK (please click here) and US (please click here).

The new Nezu Press edition alongside the original first edition of 1900.