1920 Rare Book - The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales Illustrated by Dulac
An exceptionally attractive early twentieth-century edition of The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales, retold by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and illustrated by Edmund Dulac, complete with fifteen richly atmospheric tipped-in colour plates and numerous decorative drawings.
Author: QUILLER-COUCH, Sir Arthur; retold by.
Title: The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales.
Publisher: London, Hodder & Stoughton Limited, undated [circa 1920s].
Edition: Later illustrated edition, following the celebrated Dulac edition originally issued by Hodder & Stoughton.
Language: Text in English.
Pages: 165 pages.
Size: 9.5" x 6.5".
Binding: Near fine original red cloth, with gilt lettering to the spine and a gilt sleeping cherub vignette to the front board. Top edge gilt. Binding bright, clean and firm, with only very slight rubbing and minimal age wear. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Near fine content, remarkably clean and fresh throughout, with only occasional faint age-toning or minor spotting. Hinges sound and pages firmly held. A particularly well-preserved copy.
Illustrations: Illustrated throughout by Edmund Dulac, with fifteen tipped-in colour plates, including the frontispiece, together with numerous black-and-white decorative illustrations, headpieces and ornaments within the text.
Estimate: USD 300–350.
The book:
The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales brings together several of the best-loved traditional fairy stories, including The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, Beauty and the Beast and other tales, retold in the elegant prose of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. The combination of classic storytelling and Edmund Dulac’s dreamlike imagery made the work one of the most enduring illustrated fairy books of the early twentieth century.
The present edition retains fifteen of Dulac’s celebrated colour compositions, printed separately and tipped onto heavier mounts. His nocturnal blues, muted jewel tones, elaborate costumes and theatrical settings give the volume the unmistakable atmosphere that has made Dulac’s illustrated books highly sought after by collectors.
The author:
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (1863–1944), widely known by his pen name “Q,” was a British writer, critic, anthologist and professor of English literature at Cambridge. He published fiction, criticism and poetry, but became especially influential through his literary anthologies and his ability to retell traditional stories with clarity and elegance.
His versions of these fairy tales preserve their old-world character while giving them a polished literary form suitable for the lavishly illustrated gift books of the period.
The illustrator:
Edmund Dulac (1882–1953) was one of the foremost illustrators of the Golden Age of book illustration. Born in Toulouse and later established in London, he became particularly associated with deluxe gift books issued by Hodder & Stoughton, creating celebrated illustrations for works including The Arabian Nights, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, The Tempest and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.
Dulac’s work is admired for its sophisticated colour, decorative composition and atmospheric sense of fantasy. His illustrations for The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales rank among his most recognizable fairy-tale images and remain especially desirable to collectors of illustrated books.