Arthur Rackham Books

Goblin Market, a verse fairy tale that was first published in 1862, is a rather fascinating piece of masterful poetry. It tells a wonderfully sensuous tale that has inspired a myriad of interpretations. I've spent more time reading about Goblin Market than I did actually reading it - savoring it, rather, for it really calls for a much more personal treatment than a mere reading. This pre-Raphaelite work harbors latent eroticism that echoes with both renunciation and desire. Thus, some term it a work of repressed Victorian eroticism and grin knowingly (and leeringly) as they recount the fact that Goblin Market was quite a popular children's fairy tale in its day. Christine Rossetti was herself a recluse along the lines of Emily Dickinson, allowing her heart to sing freely even as she kept herself separated from any possible objects of her latent desires.

In the poem, one sister gives in to the temptation of the forbidden fruit offered by the dark goblins forever lurking in the twilight to seduce their victims to a first taste of their exotic wares. The desire to obtain more of the passion fruit overtakes her young life, yet the goblins appear to her no more; as a result, she begins to waste away near to death. At this point, her sister, who sensibly avoided temptation, willingly seeks to bargain with the goblins, only to have them force their juicy wares upon her. The fruity residue is enough, however, to revive her sister. The act of salvation is obviously the juiciest part of the story on a number of levels - such a sensual act between sisters, with lines such as "Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices" and "Eat me, drink me, love me," cries out for interpretation of all kinds - and those quick to criticize the hypocritical prudishness of Victorian society have a veritable field day with it.

Some say this is not a poem for children's ears? Balderdash. Like any masterful work of poetry, Goblin Market can be read and interpreted on many levels. Children will delight in its lyrical rhyming patterns, its allusions to wee goblins hawking the most delicious of fruits, and interpret the salvation of the tempted sister in comparatively innocent terms. I say leave the interpretations to the adults. And what interpretations there are of this lengthy poem. Some see in it a recreation of the genesis story, a story of sacrifice and redemption, a tale of lesbian yearning, a declaration of the power of sisterhood, a commentary on women as commodities in market society, evidence of sexual molestation by Rossetti's father, etc. There's no limit to the interpretations put forth about what is, on the surface, an engaging fairy tale set to verse.

This is a fascinating work of lyrical poetry that can be read fairly quickly yet will sustain your interest through multiple readings, all sorts of fascinating research into analysis and interpretation, and just plain wonderment. As sensual as it is beautiful, Goblin Market is probably one of the most fascinating and insightful products of Victorian literature.

I wonder if the good folk at the end of the 19th century when this poem was originally published were just too obtuse to understand the gist of Rossetti's work; if so, we have an innocent artifact that has evolved into something erotic because of our twentieth century sensibilities (we have dirtier minds than our compatriots from the past).

Don't let the word "erotica" scare you away. This is not a blatantly sexual work in its language; it is not a "dirty" book. Just understand that despite what anyone else says or writes, this is about as unambiguously EROTIC as you can get. With phrasing like "Eat me, drink me, love me; Laura, make much of me; For your sake I have braved the glen; And had to do with goblin merchant men."

Since the original work is now in the public domain, if you want to read the full text online just do a search using most standard search engines with the terms "Christina Rossetti Goblin Market" and you should turn up a number of links to the actual poems, go read it, and decide for yourself about it.

This makes a wonderful gift for people you are very close too. However, it is also a very personal poem, and if given inappropriately could actually scare someone away!

Noted Italian/English poetess of the 1800's Christina Rossetti's imagination catching poetry has stood the test of time, being still loved and studied today. Because of its title, Goblin Market sometimes gets put into a juvenile category, but this is a poem for mature readers. This moral tale depicts the epic struggle between bad and good. The goblin's onslaught on virtue immediately engages the reader's inner ear and heart. This poem is really gripping reading. Goblin Market is often considered Christina Rossetti's best poem. This re-issue, replete with noted illustrator Arthor Rackham's beautifully eerie drawings, is a book worth owning.

A children tale for adults. It's a light and thoughtful reading. The story of two sisters and lewd goblin men. Innocence, temptation and emotions all together. This inspiring story has wonderful work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

This tale is not about sexuality but about redemption and the need to help others. Read deep into the story to find the meaning that Rossetti intended.

I heartily concur with the estimations of Rackham's value to the area of children's book illustrations. Look for Rackham's Mother Goose and Alice in Wonderland from Chancellor Press to introduce your little ones to his illustrations is book form, as well as Favorite Tales From Grimm. But my desire here is to point out the true color found in this collection of Rackham's illustrations. Beware, as some books republished with his pictures do not capture the subtlety of his use of color. He used dark colors and gently colored objects in all of his pictures. This book, along with Dover's other Rackham collections show his work in all its glory, the subtle and the grotesque simultaneously. A delight for any collector of Rackham, suitable for framing.

I just received this as a gift, and I am so thrilled. I think this particular artist has a wonderful gift of emotion in the art that really draws us into the story. I love the use of colors and the unique perspective. I am very pleased to add this to my collection of fairy tale items.

This thin volume is filled with some of the most enchanting drawings and paintings ever to grace childrens' books. There is an element of style in Rackham's work that reminds me in many ways of Japanese woodblock prints of the 19th century. And like a quality Japanese woodblock print, a Rackham plate is a feast for the eye.

Fairy tale subjects can range the fair to the hideous. Often illustrators are biased towards one end of the spectrum. Rackham is one of those talented artists that can simultaneously capture the beauty of a fair maiden and the brutishness of a foul giant in one composition. I especially like the vitality of his figures and the whimsical and often grotesque facial expressions of his fairies and giants. I would recommend this volume to anyone who is fond of fairy tales and fine illustration.

very pleased with the book.have always hoped i could draw like him but my life took me down another road

Indeed a grate collection of various fairy tale illustrations. A must have if you are a Rackham or fairy tale lover regardless of your age.

This is a wonderful edition of a Christmas classic. Combines the eloquent prose of Dickens with a classic leather cover, beautiful gilt pages, and a crisp, clean font. Saw it in the book store in December and really couldn't help myself.

This book is well worth the read. At 156 pages, you can whip through this book in a couple of days. Illustrations are few, but excellent. Quality of book is great for the price. This is a nice addition to any library.

This is a beautiful book. Hard cover, black leather, with gilt pages and Title.

To stay within the confines of this book... the quality of this publication of the two most popular Christmas stories was very well done. The quality is in line with those books put out by Easton Press, but without the extreme price associated with their books. I have several Easton Press books and I have this leather bound book displayed right next to them. The only difference is this Deluxe Edition by Literary Classics has a bit of a cushions cover where most Easton Press books aren't. The paper used is of standard hardbound paper stock and will stand up to the test of time very well (I think).

The two Christmas classics included in the book "A Christmas Carol" and "The Night Before Christmas" are both edited well and presented with a series of older reproduction prints. The few pictures are very nice for the time period they were made in, which reflects well on the book itself. It would have been nice if there were more graphic prints within the two stories for children to look at so they could follow along, but then again, this isn't exactly a childrens book either. I also loved the fact that Literary Classics stayed true with the authors original texts and did not stray with modern time transalations of the narratives, but stayed with the original manuscripts. The old english grammer is wonderful as tradition calls for, but sometimes it can be a little hard to understand.

This book will always have a place of honor in my library for many Christmas' to come and I would highly recommed it to anyone who is looking for a quality bound reprint that stays true to the original manuscripts. If you are wanting a book that has more pictures/graphics for children to read and look at, then this book isn't for you.

I disagree with the reviewer who states that the Captain is interetsed only in the little boy; he is being sarcastic when repeatedly argues that he is *not* attracted to the mother. Indeed, his relationship began with the family *before* the child had been born. Yes, there are sexual undertones to his relationship with the boy, but Barrie seems to imbue much of his descriptions of beauty with some subtle and sometime not-so-subtle eroticism (the blue-skinned fairy women, for example). What the Captain wants most, it seems, is the family - the 'total package', but he still yearns for his 'lost love'.

Though it is the story of a captain that befriends a boy, it is really James Barries way of describing his relationship with a young boy named George Llewelyn Davies and his mother Sophia Llewelyn Davies.

Its a great book. Sometimes hard to understand because in old English writing. It is the story of a man who mentors a little boy and during that has a love interest with a woman. It is J.M. Barrie's first book with the character of Peter Pan in it.

[A] previous reviewer states: "It is the story of a man who mentors a little boy and during that has a love interest with a woman."

There is no interest in the woman in the slightest! Indeed the author states explicitly at the beginning how tiresome it is to be persued by her. He loves the boy only. Amazing that this was a best-seller and world famous in its day - a wonderful book, but you can't help thinking that if published in 1999 it would be confined only to the mail-order book list of NAMBLA, as the old bachelor even baths and sleeps with the boy! It's available online..., as are Arthur Rackham's wonderful illustrations for the Peter Pan sections (it contains an inner story which is a very early version of Barrie's "Peter Pan".

Please keep in mind that Shakespeare's A midsummer night's dream (Monarch notes) (Monarch notes) by Eve Leoff is just as it says, Monarch Notes. A simple way to know the subject matter in a very condensed and abridged version great for those who do not have the time to read the book in its entirety. No illustrations are in it!

The story along with the images! Grate. Most of the books of its king feature only the plates with a brief description and the reader has to know the story to really understand and feel the image. Colour reproduction is not the best possible though. I have seen on the web the same images looking brighter and better. All in all it is a good book to have.

After I sadly lost an auction for a first edition of Midsummer Night's Dream with 1906 drawings by Arthur Rackham, I found and ordered this version -- a faithful copy. I'm delighted -- and not out so much money! :-)

I'm an avid collector of all books to do with fairies. This will take its place as a favorite among all my books. The play is magical, and the mix of genius -- Shakespeare's words and Rackham's imagery -- transported me to another world. There's nothing like it!!! As a fairy photographer/artist http://www.faeriechronicles.com/chronicles/antonia/index.htm I'm passionate about this genre and have have seen many of Rackham's illustrations before. It is really great to see them here with the story. There are the color copies from the plates, but also a plethora of elegant and whimsical pen and ink fairy drawings that introduce the chapters and decorate the pages that I'd never seen. Oh for joy. The pages appear to be copied from the original book (as if duplicated by scanning the original 1908 pages, but cleaned up to look new and enlarged), and they did a great job. The quality of the color reproductions is very good, especially for a paperback in this price range. I would love to have this in a hardback -- the publishers would do well to create an even fancier edition of this hearthrob -- the same size but with a more vintage-look and feel. The soft paperback tends to splay in my hands in its large format. This is a keeper and one that I'd like to last for years. Go check out the reviews on other publications of this play by itself without the illustrations -- you will find an audience that has been spellbound.

I also found a university site with the original book binding and almost all the images in the book scanned -- these are fabulous references:
http://www.special-coll.bham.ac.uk/Blueprint/feature_dream.htm

This is one of those books for which I'd enjoy having the first edition. The original had around 40 bookplates. My websearch found only a subsequent edition (with 16 plates) for $200! Nery a copy of the original 1908 version was to be found. I wonder what THAT would go for!? Please let me know if you find one for a reasonable amount, which I doubt would happen. -- Antonia

In the spring of 1851 Hawthorne wrote to his publisher, James Fields (of the renowned Ticknor and Fields), proposing a children's book retelling six well-known stories from Greek mythology. He planned to adopt "a tone in some degree Gothic or romantic." In addition, he wanted to make the fables suitable for young Christian children: "of course, I shall purge all the old heathen wickedness, and put in a moral wherever practicable."

I am usually not a fan of sanitized tales--even when written by someone the status of Nathaniel Hawthorne. But, in spite of their overt preachiness and their occasional preciousness, there's something charming and original about these adaptations. Even adults might enjoy these six tales: Perseus's slaughter of Medusa, Midas and his golden touch, Pandora's box (stripped of Prometheus's role), the apples of the Hesperides (or Hercules's Eleventh Labor), Baucis and Philemon and the magic pitcher (which, in my opinion, is the best of the lot), and Bellerophon and Pegasus's battle with the monster Chimaera.

Threading these stories together is Eustace Bright, Hawthorne's college-age narrator, who relates his versions to a gaggle of local children (a couple of whom taunt him for his bumptiousness). Hawthorne uses this framing device to insert himself as his own critic. Overhearing one of the stories, the father of one of the children is not amused, finding Eustace's taste "altogether Gothic" and advising him "never more to meddle with a classical myth." To this critique, Eustace petulantly responds that "an old Greek had no more right to them, than a modern Yankee has," and he accuses classical writers of forming these tales "into shapes of indestructible beauty, indeed, but cold and heartless." If anything, Hawthorne has certainly brought warmth to these old stories.

Still, the reading level might be a tall order for many children under 8 (although an adult can adapt them for reading out loud). Hawthorne sprinkles his prose with salutatory references to his real-life neighbors in the Berkshires (there's even a line about Melville writing "Moby Dick") and with puns and quips that have lost their context. And he gets carried away with his descriptions of the countryside. Hawthorne's evocative passages will surely strike modern readers as hopelessly old-fashioned, although the author realized that he was trying the patience of children even from his own day. After three florid and nearly insufferable paragraphs describing a meadow, for example, Hawthorne apologetically interrupts himself that "we must not waste our valuable pages with any more talk about the spring-time and the wild flowers. There is something, we hope, more interesting to be talked about."

What's more interesting, of course, are the stories of Greek gods and monsters and flying horses. Fortunately for readers young and old, Hawthorne mostly stays away from the scenery and sticks to the legends.

Once upon a time (I was about 8), a family friend handed down his Collier's Junior Classic series to me - each volume is a glorious hodgepodge of short stories from here, there, and everywhere. I got to be very fond of Greek mythology, especially "The Chimaera" and "The Miraculous Pitcher", since the Collier retellings of their respective legends were much more lively than the ordinary.

Alas, I forgot the name of the author of "The Chimaera", and even that my favourite versions of the myths were all written by the same person. Some talented guy writing for the series, no doubt, I would have said, if I'd thought about it. A couple of years ago, I started browsing through an impressive-looking illustrated volume of mythology in a bookstore (which you now see before you). Whoa. "Scarlet Letter" Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote *THESE*?

His retellings of Greek myths were originally spread over 2 volumes (the other being _Tanglewood Tales_), but they can be obtained in a single volume these days. I can personally do without the gang of Tanglewood kids providing the official audience for the stories-within-a-story, or the defense against critics put into the mouth of the storyteller Eustace Bright, but then I want more space for more myths. :) Each myth in _A Wonder Book_ has an Introductory and After the Story section where the storyteller leads up to the tale, then fends off any awkward questions from his young audience.

"The Gorgon's Head" - The story of Perseus, from his infancy through the quest for Medusa's head. Hawthorne skates delicately past the question of who put Perseus and his mother, Danae, in a chest and abandoned them on the sea, let alone why (toned down for kids, and all that), and of course doesn't go into detail about what mischief Polydectes might intend if Perseus can be got out of the way.

Hawthorne is otherwise thorough about details: he even includes the Three Gray Women, who share the use of a single eye, who had to be persuaded to reveal the location of the monsters whose gaze turns living creatures to stone.

"The Golden Touch" - The Midas legend, of how a king, blinded by a love of gold, foolishly asked Apollo that he be given the gift of turning things into gold with a touch. Be careful what you ask for...

"The Paradise of Children" - The story of Pandora's box. Hawthorne's version, much as I like his other mythological tales, has been prettified a little too much: everyone in the world was a child who never grew up, before the box arrived.

"The Three Golden Apples" - The 11th labour of Hercules, wherein the king sent him to fetch the apples of the Hesperides. The tale begins with Hercules meeting a band of nymphs, who hear his account (only briefly summarized, alas) of his preceding labours before directing him to the one person who can direct him to the garden: the Old Man of the Sea...

"The Miraculous Pitcher" - Philemon and his wife Bauchis have grown old together - the only kindly folk living for a good way around a prosperous village, whose inhabitants delight in tormenting vagabonds (although they'll fawn on wealthy-looking strangers). Then one day a ragged youth called Quicksilver and a taciturn man with an appearance of great wisdom are driven out of the village...

"The Chimaera" - Bellerophon's pursuit of Pegasus, whom he seeks because only in the air does he have a chance of killing the monstrous chimaera. Bellerophon's long wait beside the fountain of Pirene, where Pegasus descends to drink, is enlivened by several characters living round about: an old man who can't even remember his glory days, an overly timid maiden who'd run from anything unusual, a yokel who only appreciates plowhorses, and a little boy (the only one who really believes in Pegasus).

Hawthorne's gentle, charming collection of classic myths retold for the children of his day is a neglected classic. Addressing the reader in personable Victorian fashion, his prose is clear and beautiful. Consider this sample:

"Within the verge of the wood there were columbines, looking more pale than red, because they were so modest, and had thought proper to seclude themselves too anxiously from the sun. There were wild geraniums, too, and a thousand white blossoms of the strawberry. The trailing arbutus was not yet quite out of bloom; but it hid its precious flowers under the last year's withered forest-leaves, as carefully as a mother-bird hides its little young ones."

But Hawthorne is also equal to the task of less genteel, more vigorous images:

"At this sound the three heads reared themselves erect, and belched out great flashes of flame. Before Bellerophon had time to consider what to do next, the monster flung itself out of the cavern and sprung straight toward him, with its immense claws extended, and its snaky tail twisting itself venomously behind."

Adding to the pleasure of these retold tales is the gorgeous art of Arthur Rackham, both in black-and-white drawings and full-color plates, which captures the unearthly beauty and the unexpectedly surprising humor of Hawthorne's work. Highly recommended!

One day last week, I could not, even after hours of deliberation (the snow had made engagements scarce), decide what book to read next. I finally came upon this little volume on the end of my parent's bookshelf and decided to give it try. How could I have known what charms were in store? I felt like a little girl again, and as Eustace Bright, the ambitious college student who narrates these tales, held his little auditors in awe, my eyes, too, were wide with wonder. It truly is a "wonder book," full of high fantasy, thrilling action, and the inimitable imagery of a master. Though geared towards "boys and girls," Hawthorne explains in his introduction that "children possess an unestimated sensibility to whatever is deep or high, in imagination or feeling, so long as it is simple . . . It is only the artificial and complex that bewilder them." Indeed; the book hardly condescends, and so will gently stretch the middle-grader's vocabulary. But readers -- or listeners -- of all ages will delight in this collection of tales, for I was equally, if not more, entertained by the introductories and postludes to each story, which relate the antics and dialogue of Eustace and the little children he entertains. These interludes also expand the stories by slipping in commentary and interpretation.

Don't pass this one by; it will truly win your heart, whoever you may be!

I really love this version of the story. I can't wait to share it with my 4th grade students who study New York history. I think it is pretty interesting.

This book is about a man who runs away from his father because the father does nothing but yell at him. This book is one of my favorites, even though I gave it a four, because it had a lot of action and it made me want to keep reading. Although I still think that the orignal was one of the better ones that have been written.

I love this book. I remember my mother reading me a kid's version of Rip Van Winkle when I was little. Now, I am thrilled to find a version illustrated by one of my favorite fairy tale illustrators. Even though Rackham's art is somewhat darker (colors and style) than some other classic fairy tale artists, it speaks to me the most, bringing the characters to full life. This is probably one of my favorite fairy tale stories of all time and I am thrilled to have a book with illustrations that do it justice. I recommend this for fans of both fairy tales and art.

The character of Rip Van Winkle is like an older version of Peter Pan, overgrown and frumpy. He seeks to enjoy his life and in doing so engages in mostly childish activities. Adulthood bores him, as it should, because he excels at leisure as much as Ben Franklin stands out in industry.

Rip reads well to married people, who seem to be the ideal audience for the story. The detached approach Irving takes in describing the "henpecking wife" and "curtain lectures" is comical to married couples, husbands in particular. It is a great comfort for men in 2005 to learn that the traffic of henpecking was a one-way street then, too. :)

The character of Rip is admirable. How lucky to be free to do nothing and experience no remorse. He is harmless, and a great credit to the community in entertainment value and spontenaity. By enjoying simple things, he understands the best things in life are free, such as the view from the mountain top and pulling a fish out of the stream. He is good for conversation, non-judgmental, agreeable, and rather kind. Strange, but it seems he could be a fine pastor or priest.

The comedy of this story seems to be the escape from his hellish home life. Some have described heaven as a place of rest, away from the burdens of the world. So Rip, on the mountaintop, taking in a beautiful sight, after a day of shooting squirrels, has some delicious liquor, and falls asleep until two tyrants are deposed; his wife and King George.

Washington Irving's 'Rip Van Winkle' originally appeared in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819) alongside another evocative piece of Americana, 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,' a wondrous story equally set in Irving's beloved Hudson River Valley. Though not as multilayered as its longer and slightly more well known fellow, 'Rip Van Winkle' also has long roots in Old World folklore, which is appropriate, since The Sketch Book was the first book by an American writer to be taken seriously by the European audiences that then set the standard in the West. Like the earlier A Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809), 'Rip Van Winkle' is playfully attributed to Dutch antiquarian "Diedrich Knickerbocker," the most famous and certainly the most charming of several personae Irving adopted as an author.

Written in simple but gorgeously visionary language, 'Rip Van Winkle' is the story of the lazy but warm spirited farmer, who, in an effort to escape the "petticoat despotism" of his "termagant" wife, flees for an afternoon's hunting in the lonely, autumnal Catskill Mountains. Accompanied only by Wolf, his faithful but equally harassed dog, Rip is surprised when he notices an odd figure approaching through the wilderness and calling out his name. The "short, square built old fellow with thick bushy hair and a grizzled beard" is carrying a "stout keg," and gestures to Van Winkle to assist him with his burden.

Taking up the "flagon," Rip hesitantly follows the little man into an isolated ravine, and thus steps unknowingly into fairyland; there he finds himself confronted by a solemn and outlandishly dressed party of dwarfs playing at ninepins. Bewildered, Rip pours out the beverage for the assemblage, but can't resist taking a drink himself. Awaking on the mountainside, Van Winkle, finding Wolf gone and a badly rusted gun at his side, returns to town, where he discovers his home in ruins, his wife dead, his children grown to adulthood, the land of his birth now an independent nation freed from the yoke of the British, and himself a stranger to the villagers, who stare at his tattered clothing and exceptionally long facial hair. After making bewildered inquiries, he comes to accept that twenty years have passed.

As a humble, good hearted, and mild tempered dreamer, Rip is an archetypal fairytale hero, though the only dragon slain is Dame Van Winkle, and she accidentally, by the passage of time itself. Like kindred spirit Ichabod Crane, Rip is not an absolute novice when it comes to the fantastic, for he has enjoyed telling the village children who love him "long stories about ghosts, witches, and Indians."

As in traditional Celtic fairy lore, in which eating or drinking while visiting fairyland is often punished with permanent residency there, Rip had made the honest mistake of partaking of fairy foodstuffs, and thus pays an unintended price for doing so. For Celtic fairy lore also featured multiple variations on the theme of fairy time; one minute of perceived human time might be seven years of fairy time, and a man spending a happy week dancing in fairyland might discover that one hundred years or more has past on earth upon his return. Whether dwarfs, elves, boggarts, or fairies, Irving's little people are first cousins to many of the mythological beings of European mythology. Interestingly, like the literally "solitary" fairies of Ireland and Scotland, who were brusque of manner at best and never seen in groups (as were the far more gregarious "trooping" fairies), the little men Rip holds audience with "maintain the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence," and thus represent "the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed."

But Irving, who deftly places his story in the historical setting of pre-Revolutionary America, also shrewdly offers his audience other interpretations for Van Winkle's strange mountain encounter. Though narrator Diedrich Knickerbocker acknowledges early that the Catskills are "fairy mountains," one character, sage Peter Vanderdonk, explains that it was the dead "Hendrick Hudson" himself, who returns with his crew every twenty years "to keep a guardian eye on the river," whom Rip encountered, while the postscript indeterminably discusses a variety of Indian spirits, including the Manitou, who haunt the region. One fact entirely overlooked by scholars everywhere is that American literature was born in the daimonic, a tradition begun by Irving but enthusiastically continued by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe.

Like most of Irving's work, at present Rip Van Winkle is a grossly underappreciated piece of pure Americana; certainly American literature could have gotten off to a much worst beginning than it did than with its gallant, optimistic, and uncynical founder. For Rip, despite the precariousness of his experience, learns to accept his fate and settles into a comfortable old age as a venerated member of his community. Not that very long ago, there was a time in America when, taking a direct cue from the story itself, some of America's young schoolchildren were fancifully taught that thunder was not the result of lightning, but merely the echo of the elves' occasional game of mountain bowling.

This definitive edition, first published in 1905, features over fifty genuinely "mesmerizing" though somber watercolor illustrations by British master Arthur Rackham, which perfectly suit Irving's text and will captivate both adults and children alike.

I love this book. If you are someone who loves the Sleeping Beauty story, it's a must. The book itself is sturdy in hardback, and worth the investment. Rackham's artwork is funny, done in the silhouette style of black and white cut-out, enhanced with red and green inks for dramatic effect. It takes on a timeless look, reminding me of the end of the summer season. C.S. Evens tells the story in the fullest detail you will find, stretching it to 11 chapters. This is the romantic version, and talks nothing of wicked mothers or babies getting eaten up by ogres! Instead, this story begins with the princess's parents and the frog; it details the jobs of the servants and what goes in the castle, the 12 good fairies and the mad one... The curse. The advice of the wizards, the destruction of the spinning wheels, the princess growing up, and the demise of the curse's reign. Of course, there are MANY princes that attempt to break the curse, but only ONE makes it through!

Arthur Rackham not only excelled at creating full color illustrations; he also was an unrivalled master at the art of the silhouette. In this reprinted children's classic, Rackham lavishly illustrates C.S. Evan's intricate retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story with one amazing silhouette after another. One of my favorite illustrations when I was a child was a fabulous two-page cross-section of Sleeping Beauty's palace, including such great details as slumbering cats, doves, scullery maids, the king and queen on their thrones, and of course the princess in her high tower. It never ceases to impress me how much a masterful artist like Rackham could communicate just with beautifully crafted graphic shapes alone- and remember, just because something's not in color, doesn't mean it's not good! Highly recommended!

Hamilton's 1990 work is the definitive modern biography of the great English Edwardian-era book illustrator Arthur Rackham. In addition to a splendid if somewhat hagiographic text, this oversized volume contains hundreds of examples of Rackham's best work in color and black-and-white and includes many items that have not previously been reproduced. Rackham was chiefly an illustrator of childrens' books and his unusual, indeed unique work has well stood the test of time. The soft-cover version now available is attractively priced and makes a fine, imaginative gift even for people who have never heard of Arthur Rackham.

This was one of my favorite books during my childhood. I lent it to a friend and it never came back to me, therefore I have been searching for it for a long time (I forgot the title and author). The book is in a novel format with beautiful silhouettes illustrating almost every page. If you like fairy tales that have been re-written, this is a really good choice.