Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Magical Car.
"But some motorcars - mine, for instance, and perhaps yours - are different. If you get to like them and understand them, if you are kind to them and don't scratch their paint and bang their doors, if you fill them up and pump them up when they need it, if you keep them clean and polished and out of the rain and snow as much as possible, you will find, you may find, that they become almost like persons - more than just ordinary persons: MAGICAL PERSONS!"
FIRST EDITION of all three parts of Fleming's classic children's novel. Illustrated throughout in both black and white and color by John Burningham. An outstanding set.
"Fleming's only important novel for children, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964), illustrated by John Burningham, won the Young Reader's Choice Award (1967) and was adapted in 1968 as a popularly acclaimed film by Roald Dahl. Based in part on Fleming's memory of a custom-built racing car that gained local fame in Canterbury in 1921, Fleming's novel presents the screwball adventures of Commander Pott and his family, especially the Potts's magic automobile that can fly and sail. Both the novel and movie were critical successes from the first and continue to attract a wide audience" (The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature).
London: Jonathan Cape, 1964-65. Octavo, original pictorial boards, original dust jacket. Three volumes. Books fine with a few spots of foxing to volume two; a few tiny, nearly invisible tape repairs to jacket versos, volume two dust jacket price-clipped (as often). Overall a beautiful set, scarce in this condition.
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