{"product_id":"the-adventures-of-oliver-twist","title":"The Adventures of Oliver Twist","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDICKENS, Charles; Barnett FREEDMAN [Illus.] \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Adventures of Oliver Twist\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew York: The Heritage Press, 1939 \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e8vo., original cream publisher’s cloth, decorated with author’s initials and borders in red to boards, spine fully decorated in red with contrasting gilt oval label to upper portion; upper edge stained red; contained, unusually, in the original publisher’s glassine wrapper; pp. [xiv], 15-431, [i]; with full colour frontis, title vignette, and 7 further full colour, full page portrait illustrations of characters, as well as numerous black and white in text; the book excellent, slightly nicked at head of spine, upper edge a trifle dust soiled; but aside from the odd spot a clean example; the glassine, seldom found at all, is here heavily torn along spine with significant loss to head and foot. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFirst edition thus, this copy \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ewarmly inscribed by the illustrator Barnett Freedman\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e to a Frank Wyndham ‘with affection’, with their two handwritten name cards loosely tipped in. Frank Wyndham Goldie (1897-1957) was an English actor and fervent book collector who had served as a Royal Marine during the First World War and began acting at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1927. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA beautiful edition of one of Dicken’s most popular and enduring works, about a London orphan and the series of characters and criminals he meets while on the streets of the city. Here, these are portrayed by Freedman in full colour, with Mr Bumble’s austere side-eye, the artful dodger’s casual, wry smile, Fagin’s toothless, plotting grin, and Bill Sykes peeping from behind an open doorway. Freedman had already achieved some fame as a book illustrator with Sassoon’s ‘Memoirs of an Infantry Officer’ (published by Faber in 1931), and he would go on to produce artwork for works by the Brontë sisters, Walter de la Mare, Edith Sitwell, William Shakespeare and Leo Tolstoy. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“However good a descriptive text might be”, he wrote at the time, “illustrations which go with the writings add reality and significance to our understanding of the scene, for all becomes more vivid to us, and we can, with ease, conjure up the exact environment – it all stands clearly before us.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA wonderful copy to find with these attributes. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fold the Corner Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56705696366916,"sku":null,"price":475.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0943\/8711\/0212\/files\/663a02509.jpg?v=1777389357","url":"https:\/\/foldthecornerbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-adventures-of-oliver-twist","provider":"Fold the Corner Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}