MATILDA

(New York): Viking Kestrel, 1988. Fine in fine jacket.. Lovely first US edition of Dahl's novel, still beloved by contemporary children and nostalgic adults alike. A model for child prodigies, a wistful dream for harried schoolteachers, a perfect librarian's pet and the avenging angel of the elementary grades - Matilda Wormwood is an icon. Like all of Dahl's books, MATILDA pops at the seams with fury and spite, and like his best books, it is furious and spiteful about the right things: hateful parents, abuse of authority, all the petty cruelties and humiliations of childhood. It is an explicitly pro-book-reading text, and what it is for goes hand in hand with what it is against: repression, injustice, and television, television, television. Despite all that rage, on the page and essentially inseparable from the page, the inscrutable operations of Nemesis posthumously rewarded the famously adaptation-hating author with not one but two highly successful adaptations of his last great work for those who would rather watch than read: the classic and faithful 1996 film starring Mara Wilson, and an ambitious and well-received 2022 musical. One must imagine Dahl's ghost furious. 9'' x 6''. Original quarter red cloth with gilt-stamped blue boards and gilt-lettered spine. In original unclipped ($13.95) dust jacket. Illustrations by Quentin Blake. 240 pages. Tiny red ink stain (not remainder mark) to lower edge of text block. Minor edgewear to boards and jacket.