The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales: From the Old French.

QUILLER-COUCH, Sir Arthur; Edmund Dulac.

$1,750.00

Item Number: 147839

London: Hodder & Stoughton, [1910].

First trade edition of Dulac’s marvelously illustrated rendition of four classic fairy tales, retold by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch from the old French. Imperial octavo, bound in three-quarter morocco with gilt titles and ruling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, frontispiece, top edge gilt, with 30 tipped-in tissue-guarded color plates illustrated by Edmund Dulac. The fairy tales include “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Blue Beard,” “Cinderella,” and “Beauty and the Beast.” In fine condition. An exceptional example.

Quiller-Couch, a renowned literary critic, was instrumental in curating and shaping the collection of folk and fairy tales, emphasizing the art of storytelling and the moral and cultural functions of these narratives. His editorial work, particularly in The Oxford Book of English Verse, highlighted the power of the folk tradition. Edmund Dulac, a celebrated illustrator, played a crucial role in bringing these tales to life visually, with his enchanting illustrations for works like Fairy Tales of the Arabian Nights (1912) and Stories from the Arabian Nights (1907). Dulac’s romantic and ornate illustrations heightened the allure of fairy tales, contributing to their resurgence in popular culture. Together, Quiller-Couch’s literary sensibilities and Dulac’s artistic interpretations helped redefine fairy tales as both sophisticated art forms and timeless repositories of cultural imagination, influencing both contemporary readers and future generations of storytellers.