Skip to product information
1 of 1

Goldsboro Books

9780233983905

Self-Consciousness

Self-Consciousness

by John Updike

Publisher André Deutsch

Genre: Non-Fiction

Publication date:

Available from:

  • Unsigned
  • UK First Edition
  • First Printing
  • Hardcover


Regular price £20.00
Regular price Sale price £20.00
Sale Sold out
Rendering loop-subscriptions

Low stock

Rendering loop-subscriptions

Limited Edition Copies

View full details
  • Professionally Packed

    All of our books that have a dust wrapper are covered in clear protective, removable film and are packed professionally in bubble wrap and a box for shipping so that they reach you in perfect condition.

  • Book Condition & Notes

    Some bruising to top corners and slight wear to spine. Bruising to unclipped dust jacket to match.

About the book

John Updike's memoirs consist of six Emersonian essays that together trace the inner shape of the life, up to the age of fifty-five, of a relatively fortunate American male. The author has attempted, his foreword states, "to treat this life, this massive datum which happens to be mine, as a specimen life, representative in its odd uniqueness of all the oddly unique lives in this world." In the service of this metaphysical effort, he has been hair-raisingly honest, matchlessly precise, and self-effacingly humorous. He takes the reader beyond self-consciousness, and beyond self-importance, into sheer wonder at the miracle of existence.

Collapsible content

About the Author

John Updike

John Updike was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, Updike published more than twenty novels, more than a dozen short-story collections, as well as poetry, art and literary criticism and children's books during his career.


Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems appeared in The New Yorker starting in 1954. He also wrote regularly for The New York Review of Books. His most famous work is his "Rabbit" series (the novels Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; and the novella Rabbit Remembered), which chronicles the life of the middle-class everyman Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom over the course of several decades, from young adulthood to death. Both Rabbit Is Rich (1982) and Rabbit at Rest (1990) were recognised with the Pulitzer Prize.


He described his style as an attempt "to give the mundane its beautiful due".

Collapsible content

GPSR EU Safety Information

1. Manufacturer Contact Information

Goldsboro Books Ltd - 23-27 Cecil Court, London, WC2N4EZ, enquiries@goldsborobooks.com, 02074979230

2. EU Authorised Representative Information

Easy Access System Europe - Mustamäe tee 50, 10621 Tallinn, Estonia, gpsr.requests@easproject.com

3. Safety Warnings

Not applicable

  • Fellowship: August 2026 Revealed

    Fellowship: August 2026 Revealed

    Rebecca McDonnell

    For August 2026’s Fellowship selection, we wanted a story that showcases everything we love about the genre at its most ambitious: sweeping political intrigue, unforgettable characters, rich world-building, and the...

    Rebecca McDonnell

    Fellowship: August 2026 Revealed

    For August 2026’s Fellowship selection, we wanted a story that showcases everything we love about the genre at its most ambitious: sweeping political intrigue, unforgettable characters, rich world-building, and the...

  • The Psychology of the Subscription Reader

    The Psychology of the Subscription Reader

    David H Headley

    Regularly, it could be a customer visiting one of our shops, or during a publisher meeting, or even at one of our events, somebody discovers that Goldsboro Books has not...

    1 comment
    David H Headley

    The Psychology of the Subscription Reader

    Regularly, it could be a customer visiting one of our shops, or during a publisher meeting, or even at one of our events, somebody discovers that Goldsboro Books has not...

    1 comment
  • Why Independent Bookshop Week Matters

    Why Independent Bookshop Week Matters

    David H Headley

    Every year, Independent Bookshop Week gives us the chance to celebrate something remarkable. Not books. Bookshops. At first glance, that distinction might seem odd. Surely the books are the important part?...

    1 comment
    David H Headley

    Why Independent Bookshop Week Matters

    Every year, Independent Bookshop Week gives us the chance to celebrate something remarkable. Not books. Bookshops. At first glance, that distinction might seem odd. Surely the books are the important part?...

    1 comment
  • Why We Still Queue for Signatures

    Why We Still Queue for Signatures

    David H Headley

    The final panel finishes. The applause dies away. People stretch their legs, gather their bags, and begin making their way towards the exits. Or at least they could. Instead, they...

    David H Headley

    Why We Still Queue for Signatures

    The final panel finishes. The applause dies away. People stretch their legs, gather their bags, and begin making their way towards the exits. Or at least they could. Instead, they...

1 of 4