signed-firsts

The Professor of Desire (1977) Signed First Edition Reference

Approx. 2 min read · 4 May 2026

The Professor of Desire (1977) is the second David Kepesh novel, following The Breast (1972) and preceding The Dying Animal (2001). Where The Breast was a brief Kafkaesque fantasia, The Professor of Desire is a realistic, psychologically detailed narrative of Kepesh’s erotic and intellectual life from his undergraduate years through his career as a literature professor. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, the novel traces Kepesh’s oscillation between desire and domesticity — his affairs, his two marriages, his engagement with Kafka and Chekhov as guides to the complexities of sexual life — with the sustained attention to interior experience that characterizes Roth’s most controlled fiction.

First Edition Identification

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York Publication date: 1977 Format: Hardcover, 263 pages First printing indicator: Number line on copyright page with “1” present; “First edition” or “First printing” statement

Signed Copy Values

Flat-signed: $350–$800
Inscribed: $500–$1,300

Mid-lower range in the Roth market. The Kepesh novels do not command the same collector attention as the Zuckerman novels, reflecting both a smaller critical literature and the perception that Kepesh is a secondary Roth creation. This perception is debatable — The Dying Animal in particular has passionate admirers — but it shapes market pricing.

The Kafka Connection

The novel includes a remarkable set-piece: Kepesh visits Prague and tours Kafka’s apartment, then has a dream in which he meets Kafka’s whore — a woman who claims to have known Kafka sexually. This passage is one of Roth’s most celebrated fictional engagements with Kafka, and it establishes the literary-erotic connection that runs through the Kepesh trilogy. For collectors interested in literary influence and intertextuality, the Kafka dimension gives The Professor of Desire significance that extends beyond its position in the Roth bibliography alone.

Investment Notes

Modest appreciation potential. The book’s value is primarily as a component of the complete Roth collection and as the central text of the Kepesh trilogy. If the Kepesh novels undergo critical reassessment — the 2003 film adaptation of The Dying Animal (released as Elegy, starring Ben Kingsley) brought some attention to the series — prices could see incremental movement from current levels.