The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker - Numbered Edition

PRE-ORDER PRICE: $895
PUBLICATION PRICE: $925

As intense and disturbing as it is impossible to put down, The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker is a landmark work of modern horror—one that redefined the genre on its publication and continues to unsettle readers decades later.

When Frank Cotton’s dark appetites for pleasure and pain push him beyond moral and physical limits, a mysterious puzzle box becomes his gateway into a nightmarish netherworld inhabited by the Cenobites—extradimensional beings who traffic in experiences so extreme that the boundaries between ecstasy and agony dissolve. After Frank’s catastrophic fate, one woman remains obsessed with him: his brother’s wife, Julia, whose devotion drives her to acts of shocking brutality as she attempts to restore Frank piece by piece, no matter the human cost. 

First published in November 1986 by Dark Harvest in the third volume of its Night Visions anthology series, The Hellbound Heart was instantly praised by critics and readers alike as a groundbreaking achievement in horror fiction. Its impact only deepened when it was adapted into the 1987 film Hellraiser, also written and directed by Barker. The film’s success cemented the story’s place in popular culture and spawned multiple film sequels, before HarperPaperbacks issued the work as a standalone edition in 1991.

At once brutal and strangely intimate, this nerve-shattering novella is as much a meditation on obsession, longing, and the boundaries of the human heart as it is a work of pure horror. Unflinching in its vision and relentless in its execution, The Hellbound Heart endures as Barker’s masterwork of terror.

The limited edition of The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker is presented in three states: Lettered, Numbered and Classic editions.

NUMBERED EDITION

• 6" x 9½" trim size.
• 176 Pages.
• Limited to 350 copies.
• Signed by Clive Barker, Phil Stokes and Sarah Stokes.
• Each copy sewn and bound by hand by Anne Covell. 
• Fourteen color illustrations by Clive Barker. 
• New exclusive afterword by Phil and Sarah Stokes.
  
• Bonus material includes reproduction of Kirk Reinert’s first edition artwork, sketches of the Cenobite by Clive Barker, as well as scans of pages from the handwritten and typewritten manuscript.
• Handmade lapped component case binding featuring a spine covered in black handmade Cave Paper and boards wrapped in rich red handmade paper created for this edition by the bookbinder.
• Cover papers are made from a 50/50 blend of hemp and cotton fibers that have been internally sized and colored with Quindo red pigment. The resulting sheets are then loft dried for added texture and then hand dyed with persimmon tannin to strengthen the paper and deepen the color.  
  
• Spine and covers feature handsewn stitching in two colors with hand-punched circular detailing on the spine.
• Head & tail bands are handmade with the cover paper.
• Endsheets are Hahnemühle Bugra.
  
• Designed, cast in metal and printed letterpress from metal type on mouldmade Somerset paper by David Wolfe at Wolfe Editions in Portland, Maine.
• Text pages set in Monotype Plantin. Titling faces are Castellar designed by John Peters and Caledonia designed by W.A. Dwiggins.
• Press work was accomplished on a Nebiolo cylinder press.
• Includes a fold-out of the Classic edition dust jacket art by Dave McKean.
• Housed in a custom drop-top box crafted from Baltic birch wood, painted black and laser engraved using a “negative” technique in which the paint is etched away to reveal the natural wood beneath. The spine of the box is also engraved, featuring the title and author. The lid is precisely fitted to remain secure when shelved, and the interior is lined with red felt to protect the volume within.
• Bookmark with all pre-orders.

Published editions may differ slightly from mockups and prototype designs.
Illustrations © 2022 by Clive Barker.