Edmund Dulac Books

I have the original published in 1914. The fairy tales are unique and the illustrations are beautiful.

This is a great way to teach toddlers the alphabet. The limericks are easy for them to remember and fun for parents, too. I keep trying to find the book to buy as gifts and would recomend it highly.

I recommend this book because it is funny and I like it. It is about a man and his experiment one day he was working in his lab and he dropped something in one of his experiments. So it started to bubble and steam then all of a sudden "POP"! a rubber thing popped out and started to jump around he tried to catch it but we couldn't.

This is an excellent book for listing names/addresses. Each letter has
a full color illustration with an accompanying poetic verse. i.e.

o "E was an exquisite elf
Who enjoyed being quite by herself."

o "G was a giddy young girl
With a gaudy green hat and a curl.

o "J was a Japanese jewel;

o "S was a short-sighted squire
Who solemnly sang in a choir;
And he passed from staccato
To a soft moderato
In a fashion that all did admire. "

o "M was a merry milk maid... "
She was pretty and did well in school. "

This book would make a perfect gift for almost any occasion.

Alladin and His Magic Lamp and Sinbad as well as Ali Baba and his Forty Thieves were among some of my favorite books as a child. I was fortunate to grow up in a home where books were as important as food and shelter. We spent many hot summer afternoons in the huge old Baton Rouge Library. To this day I am a shameless bibliophile. The smell of books, The weight of them in my hands, the bliss of discovering new or old treasures are intense pleasures I vaguely feel I should confess.
This edition of Sinbad and stories from the Arabian Nights illustrated by Edmund Dulac published by Weathervane in 1978 is one to enchant the most hardened heart. The men are noble the princesses and women of the harems are beautiful. Here is a magic more potent,more seductive, and more adult than Harry Potter. Really,I love Harry.But these stories convey the gardens of Allah with high stone walls enclosing moonlit pools
and rare flowers. Sloe eyed maidens clothed in jewel toned silks embroidered in gold, adorned with diamonds,sapphires and rubies wait with longing for their lovers to rescue them. I can feel the desert sirocco beginning to stir, the courtyard fountains turn to gentle mists, the peacocks gather under a tamarind tree and each breath filled with cinnamon, almonds and honeyed dates reminds one of the last touch of him for whom she waits.
Yes, the stories and illustrations are that good. This is the East of legend and conquest, of magic carpets, sorcerers, sultans, adventures and most of all of love.

... I love this book the pictures are wonderful get this book for anyone at any age it is a magical exsperiance.

A little repetitive...

No point in worrying... enjoy life at the moment... can't control birth or death so lets get drunk and make love


But pretty.

I'm new to the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam, but I must say I throughly enjoyed this translation. It's great for reading alone, reading aloud and discussing with good philosophically-minded friends.

To sum up the feelings of this book, I shall use some quotations from other media I enjoy. Here we go:

"Seize the Day" (Dead Poet's Society)
"Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you shall die" (The Bible)
"From dust you are, and dust you shall return" (Genesis, The Bible)

That's pretty much the gist of the poem, written in a style that evokes the Bible book of Ecclesiastes, which is not surprising. They are both written by old, disenchanted men nearing the end of their lives. The only difference is one is a disenchanted Jewish King (Solomon of Ecclesiastes) and the other (Omar Khayyam) is a disenchanted Moslem thinker and astronomer. It's very interesting to note the parallels.

I'd recommend this book and this very literal translation to those who are questioning the meaning of life. It's worth every penny...

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is almost certainly the most widely known work by an Islamic writer. It is the only non-western piece of literature that I was required to read when in high school and I recently re-read this version. Like most historical pieces, it is difficult to understand without additional knowledge of the historical context. Khayyam was a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer, which means he was as educated as the times allowed. The Rubaiyat was written in about 1120 C. E. and is in the form of quatrains or four-line rhymes.
As a poem, the flow is smooth and the imagery deals with the lot of what human life is. The fourteenth quatrain is:

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and--sans End!

with clear imagery regarding death, which is a consistent theme throughout. Other quatrains deal with how we cope with life, and how we deal with the difficult questions of our existence. Quatrain 74 is

Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare;
To-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair:
Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.

describing how little we know about the consequences of our journey through life.

The deep imagery of the poems requires that you read it slowly and several times. Like the best of poems, the passages are often open to multiple interpretations, which increases the level of interest. I hope that the high schools in my area still require the eleventh grade English classes to read this poem, understanding it is truly within the purview of multicultural studies.

I collect this work in different formats. This particular book is very good. I recommend everyone reading the Rubaiyat at least once in their lifetime. It is an excellent poetic examination of Man's purpose and Man's relation with God. One can appreciate the Rubaiyat only for its beautiful poetic images or explore it over and over for its deeper philosophical nuances. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is ever a delight no matter how you prefer it.

There are so many editions of Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat translations that have been published, with many being limited editions. Several of these rose to highly collectible status, especially those with tipped-in color plates by Dulac, Pogany or Arthur Szyk. These necessarily set them apart from other more textual editions.

This review has specifically to do with the Illustrated Editions Company 1938 printing. Physically, at 11 1/2" x 8" it is rather long and wide, almost completely black, except for a red illustration of a mosque on the cover, and thin.

I give 4 Stars only because it is not the first Fitzgerald edition, but a 20th century reprint. Beyond that, this is the most excellent of editions. The Illustrated Editions Company version has the first and last Fitzgerald translations.

This book is powerful and sacred. Reading it will invoke a shamanic experience-- you will be there, as Omar uses the wine metaphor to teach the value and ephemeral substance of life. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is essential metaphysics. The note and comment that open this edition are key to understanding why the Illustrated Editions Company is above all the rest, even other collector editions, of which I own several. It is the care and quality of the edition that sets it apart, certainly not anything distinguished about its content. This is my favorite edition of all. The tipped in color plates by Hamzeh Abd-ullah Kar are authentic Persian fantasy, and reading each carefully printed verse on the heavy, slightly glossy parchment is a religious experience. There is something qualitatively different about reading the Illustrated Editions Company version.

I can't find much else about this copy on the net, but there is one site that shows a copy remarkably similar to the one which I am using to base this review. I see no evidence that the title letters were ever gilt, although whenever the book goes up for auction the owners usually say the gilt is worn from the letters. This can't be true of all these copies, especially for a printing as late as '38, so I'm inclined to believe there never was any gilt lettering. I have seen other far less well preserved editions from earlier periods that have almost fully retained their gilt. The gems are between the boards, in this case.

The comment by Edward Heron-Allen is itself a collectible piece of literature, though he wrote only one paragraph. Truly an edition which can only be enjoyed by the reverential Rubaiyat enthusiast.

So beautiful, Edmund Dulac a superb master of his art, all children should have the pleasure of these stories and illustrations

this book is very interesting , I like the drawings very much, Dulac is a very amazing artist.

I got this for me, as a collector of fairy tales and fairy tale art, but it is a good book for our bedtime storyhour. When my kids were not familiar with certain fairy tales (The Nightingale and The Wind's Tale) they made up stories to go with the pictures. So this was a good activity for them to be creative and use their growing imaginations. As much as I like this, I don't think of it as truly collectible because it is soft cover book.

Unfortunately, the poor quality of the reproductions made this a disappointing purchase. I also bought Dulac's Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale Cards by the same publisher, and they were beautiful.

I had never heard of Dulac before and ordered his book along with the Rackham collection. I actually was blown away by Dulac's work and am really amazed that after studying in art and exploring classic illustration, I had never come across this guy. I have heard of Rackham and seen his work, but I enjoy Dulac even more...his rich color and beautiful compositions are inspiring.

I had the idea it would blissful to ride to work with Toby Stephens reading stories to me. I was right. These are charming and sometimes hair-raising tales told with all the variety he can bring to his voice to mesmerize and enthrall. I have heard other books on tape where the reader falters at the woman's lines or sounds too much the same to distinguish between characters. Toby can go from growl to light-as-air with the greatest of ease. These stories have far too much violence for the smallest of children but, otherwise, offer a delicious trip to fantasy land courtesy of a master storyteller.

The product came quickly. It was exactly as advetised and met expectations. Thank You.

This book is awesome! I read it 3 years ago and I borrowed it again from my aunt and I'm reading it now. If anyone knows where I can get a copy of the Reader's Digest version please post. Thanks!

I bought this for my two sons, ages 7 & 9. We put it in at the beginning of a 2.5 hour trip and it kept our entire family very entertained. The trip flew by.

This is not a bad compilation of the classic 'Arabian Nights' tales, but be aware that it has been greatly abridged for children's eyes. This has been accomplished several ways: Some of the most raunchy stories have been left out entirely, others have been heavily edited. Somewhat irritating and baffling, however, is that several of the stories haven't been edited so much as left with huge gaps and sometimes without any kind of ending. When I read these stories as I child, I was fascinated but deeply confused at the lack of resolution in several of the stories. Having read the "adult" Arabian Nights tales since then, that confusion has been cleared up.

This is not a bad adaptation for children, but I would have preferred a more carefully edited version, rather than one with somewhat sloppy cuts that left me, even as a child, aware that something was missing.

The book has nice pen and ink illustrations throughout and includes the original Treasure Island map illustration from the original edition. The cover art is by a different artist who has clearly adapted the image from the very familiar publicity photo of Jim and Long John Silver from the Disney film--kind of humorous.

I missed this one as a boy though I had always loved adventure fiction. So years later, and no longer a boy, I picked it up and tried to read it. But I just couldn't get into it and so put it aside. More recently I picked it up again, this time determined to see it through.

Although it wasn't compelling at the start, with the appearance of an old pirate, Billy Bones, at the Admiral Benbow Inn run by young Jim Hawkins' father, it did start to pick up a head of steam as I pushed my way into it. I was pleasantly surprised to find it catching me up with the discovery of the map and the appearance of the pirates in hot pursuit of Billy Bones, and Jim's race to Dr. Livesy and Squire Trelawney to gain their protection. Intriguingly these upstanding English gentlemen, pillars of their community, decide to hunt the treasure for themselves though the squire, at least, lacks the good sense or discretion to keep the project secret. And so young Jim is swept along into the excursion, upon the death of his father, and soon finds himself aboard a suspect ship manned by an even more suspicious seeming crew on the way to a desert island in the Caribbean where old pirate Captain Flint's treasure is purportedly buried.

The most interesting character is, of course, the by now famous Long John Silver who has long since entered into the cultural zeitgeist. But Silver's not nearly as charming or charismatic in this book as he has come to seem in popular recollection. Young Jim Hawkins, for his part, is a mischievous fellow who manages to get himself into one scrape after another while always coming out alright, even when he is obliged to face down a treacherous mutineer or when he stumbles unthinkingly into the pirates' own nest.

In truth Treasure Island is not quite as exciting or as easy a read as one might expect for all its reputation. Still, it was nicely done and kept me reading to the end (though it did end with something of a letdown, leading me to think it somewhat overrated). It was a boy's book from the first, according to its author and I think it works well enough as that. Still, it's somewhat dated and lacks the excitement we've come to expect in our adventures today. Good but not among the best, in my view. I thought Stevenson's Master of Ballantrae much the better book.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga

This is a solid condensed version of the classic search for buried treasure in the late 1700's. Author Robert Louis Stevenson draws readers in early as the Captain arrives at the Benbow Inn in Britain, focused on incoming ships, and warning young Jim Hawkins of one-legged visitors. The story picks up as Billy Bones arrives, bringing danger and discovery of the treasure map, a discovery that leads Jim and his companions to risk the long trip in search of riches. I felt the suspense as Jim's group boards ship with a hardened sea crew that includes Long John Silver and other tough cookies. Then the ship finally arrives at the Island, where Jim and his companions must survive treachery and deadly struggles at the fort - before they even see the treasure.

I just taught this abridged version to English-literate students at a high school in Latin America; most liked it although some wanted even more action. This is a solid read for adventure fans, capable young readers, and those that desire a good story.

My dad and I are reading this book, and we think it's totally awesome! If you are 11 or 12, you may want to read this book with an adult, but you'll love the adventure and pirates, the treasure map and the Hispanola. I think I am going to start learning pirate lingo now, so I'll be ready if Long John shows up at my door! If you read this book you'll have to rate it a five star because of the adventure. Kids, hope you can get YOUR dad to read it with you!!

Cracking good pirate tale hits all the high points of treachery, adventure, narrow escapes, and treasure hunting, usually misfiled in the Juvenile section.

"Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!"

See my review of the new novel Silver: My Own Tale As Written by Me with a Goodly Amount of Murder that tells more of the story behind Long John Silver.