1911 Rare Book - The Magic Horse and Stories from Arabian Nights by Edmund Dulac
An attractive and complete early Edmund Dulac gift book, bringing together twelve tales from the Arabian Nights with twelve richly atmospheric colour plates.
Author: Laurence Housman, reteller.
Title: The Magic Horse and Other Stories from the Arabian Nights.
Illustrator: Edmund Dulac.
Publisher: London, New York and Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 8" x 6".
Pages: Unpaginated.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s reddish orange cloth binding, with a handsome gilt pictorial design of the Magic Horse to the front board and gilt lettering to the spine. The binding remains firm, clean and attractive, with only light age and shelf wear. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content, generally bright, clean and well preserved. Some toning to the endpapers and to the final page, as shown, with occasional minor age spotting. A contemporary gift inscription dated June 25, 1913 appears on the front free endpaper.
Illustrations: Complete with the 12 full-page colour illustrations by Edmund Dulac, each retaining its original captioned tissue guard. The plates remain bright and beautifully preserved.
Estimate: USD $300–500.
The book: The Magic Horse and Other Stories from the Arabian Nights is one of the beautiful illustrated gift books produced during the golden age of British book illustration. Laurence Housman retells a selection of tales from The Arabian Nights, including “The Story of the Magic Horse,” “The Fisherman and the Genie,” and “The Story of the King of the Ebony Isles.”
The stories move through a world of enchanted horses, genies, kings, sorcerers, impossible journeys and sudden transformations. Housman’s retelling preserves the exotic atmosphere and narrative energy of the traditional tales while presenting them in a form particularly suited to the lavish illustrated books of the Edwardian period.
The author: Laurence Housman (1865–1959) was an English writer, playwright, poet and illustrator. The younger brother of poet A. E. Housman, he worked across a remarkably wide range of literary forms and was particularly successful as a reteller of traditional stories and fairy tales.
Housman had a strong affinity for folklore and fantasy, and his elegant adaptations were ideally suited to the great illustrated gift books of the early twentieth century. In The Magic Horse, his clear and graceful prose provides an effective literary setting for Dulac’s more sumptuous visual imagination.
The illustrator: Edmund Dulac (1882–1953) was one of the foremost illustrators of the Golden Age of Illustration. Born in Toulouse and later established in London, he became celebrated for the luxurious colour plates he produced for major publishers during the first decades of the twentieth century.
Dulac’s illustrations are distinguished by their sophisticated colour harmonies, decorative composition and dreamlike atmosphere. His interpretations of fairy tales, legends and Eastern stories were especially admired, and his work on The Arabian Nights material ranks among his most characteristic achievements.
In The Magic Horse, Dulac’s muted blues, greens, golds and jewel tones create an enchanted visual world perfectly suited to the mystery and romance of the stories. The twelve full-page plates make this one of the most appealing smaller-format Dulac books of the period.