I Promessi Sposi; or, The Betrothed Lovers. A Milanese Story of the Seventeenth Century. Metropolitan Edition by Alessandro Manzoni; G. W. Featherstonhaugh (trans.) - 1834

Washington: Duff Green, 1834. First American edition. Hardcover. Fair. 1834, most likely the First American edition. Hardcover, 8vo., original leather-backed boards, gilt title. 249 pp. Text in double-columns. Translator's 2 page preface at the beginning. Fair. Front board and fly leaf present, but detached. Rear fly leaf has been removed; loss to leather at spine ends; boards rubbed. Light foxing to contents; large stains visible through first 30 pages, otherwise few small marginal stains. Old pencil signature at front of former owner. Rare. First American printing of what's still considered to be the great Italian novel. Edgar Allan Poe wrote a positive review of this edition in the May 1835 issue of The Southern Literary Messenger.