Penguin 1st edition, published 1949.
The story of a stool-pigeon -- or what the police euphemistically prefer to call an "informant"; it deals with a hardened criminal who has been bred by the code of his environment into a hatred of the police, to the belief that the informer is the lowest moral type -- that the supreme virtue is to be a "standup man": one who won't talk. How Vanni Bianco throws in with his traditional enemies and becomes a stool-pigeon -- through prison experiences, personal tragedy, despair, and to revenge himself on the accomplices who betrayed him, is at once a tragedy and, strangely enough, a story of moral regeneration.
Condition grading: Good. Light crease to top right corner of front cover. Very light foxing and light grubbiness to top of rear cover. Minor bumping to spine bottom. Binding tight. The photographs form part of the description.
Penguin 1st edition, published 1949.
The story of a stool-pigeon -- or what the police euphemistically prefer to call an "informant"; it deals with a hardened criminal who has been bred by the code of his environment into a hatred of the police, to the belief that the informer is the lowest moral type -- that the supreme virtue is to be a "standup man": one who won't talk. How Vanni Bianco throws in with his traditional enemies and becomes a stool-pigeon -- through prison experiences, personal tragedy, despair, and to revenge himself on the accomplices who betrayed him, is at once a tragedy and, strangely enough, a story of moral regeneration.
Condition grading: Good. Light crease to top right corner of front cover. Very light foxing and light grubbiness to top of rear cover. Minor bumping to spine bottom. Binding tight. The photographs form part of the description.
