The King of the Golden River.

RUSKIN, John. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.

$600.00

Item Number: 117643

London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, 1932.

Signed limited edition. Octavo, original limp vellum, gilt titles and decoration to front cover, illustrated endpapers, top edge gilt, color frontispiece and three plates, illustrations in the text, all by Rackham. Signed by Arthur Rackham, one of 570 copies of which 550 were for sale, this is number 549. Near fine in the the rare original slipcase, bookplate.

This work by John Ruskin was originally written in 1841 for the twelve-year-old Effie (Euphemia) Gray, whom Ruskin later married. It was published in book form in 1851, and became an early Victorian classic which sold out three editions. In the "Advertisement to the First Edition", which prefaces it, it is called a fairy tale, one, it might be added, that illustrates the triumph of love, kindness, and goodness over evil; however, it could also be characterized as a fable, a fabricated origin myth and a parable. It was illustrated by Arthur Rackham in 1932.