Mal Hansie by Audrey Blignault

Mal Hansie (First Edition 1996 in Illustrated Dust Jacket)

Audrey Blignault's Selected Afrikaans Stories, Chosen by Elize Botha and Hennie Aucamp, in the Original 1996 Tafelberg Hardback

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Mal Hansie: en ander verhale
• Author: Audrey Blignault
• Editor: Elize Botha ; Hennie Aucamp
• Publisher: Tafelberg, Kaapstad
• Publication Date: 1996
• ISBN-13: 9780624034773
• ISBN-10: 0624034771
• Edition Details: Eerste uitgawe (First Edition), 1996. Selection by Elize Botha and Hennie Aucamp.
• Binding: Publisher's illustrated printed hardcover boards matching the dust jacket, with the publisher's logo at the foot of the spine.
• Physical Format: Small octavo (roughly 200 x 140 mm). Illustrations by Cora Coetzee credited.
• Language: Afrikaans

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
• Exterior / Boards: The illustrated boards beneath the jacket show a dune scene matching the jacket and appear clean and bright. The glossy laminated dust jacket is protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover.
• Interior: The text block appears tight and the title and copyright pages are clean. The pages examined are clean and white, with no foxing or markings visible.
• The Dust Jacket: Present. Glossy laminated jacket with an illustrated front and cream spine and back. It is clean, with no tears and only a few tiny specks to the back panel. The front flap carries the author's photograph and a description of the stories. Protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover.

Synopsis & Historical Value

Mal Hansie en ander verhale (Mad Hansie and Other Stories) was published by Tafelberg in Cape Town in 1996. It brings together ten of Audrey Blignault's longer stories for the first time, in a selection made by Elize Botha and Hennie Aucamp.

The title story first appeared in 1965 in Die Blye Dae. It deals with a young girl's loss of childhood innocence. The collection as a whole turns on childhood experiences: family breakdown, unrequited love, an unkind uncle's resistance to ageing and the wonder of being noticed on a rainy day. Together they show the lasting mark one person can leave on another's heart.

This is the 1996 first edition of the collection, issued with a newly chosen cover. It was reissued in paperback in 2020, which makes the original hardback in its illustrated jacket the form to seek for a collection of Afrikaans short fiction.

Author Profile: Audrey Blignault

Audrey Bettie Blignault (1916-2008) was a South African author and broadcaster. In 1945 she became editor of the women's magazine Die Huisvrou and began the first Afrikaans book programme on radio. For 25 years she wrote a column for Sarie, and essays from these columns were collected in 17 books.

Her work was recognised with the Eugène Marais Prize (1961), the W.A. Hofmeyr Prize (1965) and the Adelaide Ristori Prize (1980). Other notable titles include Die Blye Dae (1965), Die plesierboom (1967) and Die rooi granaat (1970). Her daughter is the novelist Marié Heese.