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COLLODI, Carlo.
The Story of a Puppet or the Adventures of Pinocchio.
Translated from the Italian by M. A. Murray. Illustrated by C. Mazzanti.
First edition in English. The London and New York editions are from the same sheets and both dated 1892, although the inscription here suggests that the London edition at least was issued the previous year, presumably for the Christmas gift market. First issued in magazine instalments in the Giornale dei bambini (Rome, 7 July 1881 on), Pinocchio was first published in book form in 1883 as Le Avventure di Pinocchio: storia di un burattino, and quickly became a best-seller, though Collodi (real name Carlo Lorenzini) died in 1890 before witnessing its international success. "Almost nothing else in children's literature equals Pinocchio for wildness of invention" (Carpenter & Prichard, Oxford Companion to Children's Literature).
Small octavo. Original patterned cloth printed in blue, patterned endpapers and edges to match. Housed in a dark blue quarter morocco solander box made by The Chelsea Bindery. Half-title and title printed in red and black, frontispiece and illustrations throughout by C. Mazzanti. Ink ownership inscription of Marguerite Barham, Scotland, dated 1891 on initial blank recto and pencilled gift inscription to her on verso from Alice Middleton Gorebridge. Endpapers and outer leaves very lightly foxed, else a fine copy, the cloth particularly fresh, clean and white.
