Beginning with a hit-and-run in the Bronx, Tom Wolfe follows the slow implosion of Sherman McCoy, a Wall Street bond trader who believes himself one of the "Masters of the Universe".

Then, class resentment, race, media spectacle and political ambition converge to dismantle his life. The novel became an instant modern classic not because of its plot alone, but because Wolfe transformed New York itself into the protagonist: a city fuelled by money, status, fear, gossip and relentless performance.

Written with Wolfe's trademark journalistic precision and satirical excess, the novel sits somewhere between Balzac, Dickens and Hunter S. Thompson. Every institution is implicated—finance, law, journalism, politics, policing—and each becomes another theatre where appearances matter more than truth. Decades after publication, its portrait of media hysteria, elite anxiety and public scandal feels remarkably contemporary, making The Bonfire of the Vanities one of the defining social novels of the late twentieth century.

Jonathan Cape first UK edition, first printing (1988), hardcover with dust jacket. Very good condition with light shelf wear and minor creasing to the jacket edges. Binding remains tight and pages are clean throughout.