Little Lord Fauntleroy.

BURNETT, Frances Hodgson.

Item Number: 84388

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1886.

First edition, first issue with printer’s device on page [210], 14 pages of publisher’s advertisements bound in back, and signature mark 12, indicating first issue. Octavo, original pictorial tan cloth, engraved frontispiece and 11 plates. Illustrated with drawings by Reginald B. Birch. In excellent condition with light wear to the extremities. Housed in a custom cloth chemise and clamshell case.

First published as a serial in St. Nicholas Magazine (November 1885-October 1886), Burnett’s book “earned wide praise on its publication; enthusiastic reviewers included Louisa May Alcott, and among its English admirers was Gladstone” (Carpenter & Prichard, 316). “It is unfortunate that Cedric Fauntleroy, the charming American grandson of a crusty English earl, has been stereotyped as a sissy, for he is a charming and resourceful child. But his characteristic velvet suit with Vandyke collar, a fashion of the day, was forced upon many real-life boys [A.A. Milne among them] who then looked upon the novel with disfavor. Nonetheless, it became one of the best-selling books of all time on both sides of the Atlantic, and spawned dozens of theatrical and film interpretations” (Silvey, 106). BAL 2064. Pierpoint Morgan Library, Children’s Literature 244. Basis for a number of films, most notably the 1936 adaptation starring Freddie Bartholomew and the 1980 film starring Alec Guinness, Rick Schroder, Eric Porter, Connie Booth, Patrick Stewart, and John Welsh.