This 1920 collection includes five timeless French fairy tales written by Comtesse De Segur and illustrated by the 19 year old Virginia Sterrett.

An Armenian folktale about two robbers courting the same girl.

Old French Fairy Tales is a collection of french folklore and fairytales, penned by Sophie Rostopchine, Countess of Ségur (1799 – 1874). Ségur was a French writer of Russian birth, best known today for her novel Les Malheurs de Sophie (Sophie’s misfortunes), intended for children. The anthology contains stories split into four categories: ‘Blondine, Bonne-Biche, and Beau-Minon’, ‘Good Little Henry’, ‘Princess Rosette’, ‘Little Gay Mouse’ and ‘Ourson’. The stories in Old French Fairy Tales are accompanied by the truly beautiful illustrations of Virginia Frances Sterrett (1900 – 1931). Presented alongside the text, her illustrations further refine and elucidate Ségur’s masterful storytelling. Sterrett was an American artist and illustrator – one of the most talented, though also most tragic, of the ‘Golden Age’ illustrators. Sterrett’s illustrations are delicate yet powerful, inspired by the tradition of Art Nouveaux with its light washes of colour and sinuous black lines. She only completed three works in her lifetime, due to her early death from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-one. These include Old French Fairy Tales (1920), Tanglewood Tales (1921) and Arabian Nights (1928). Pook Press celebrates the great ‘Golden Age of Illustration‘ in children’s literature – a period of unparalleled excellence in book illustration. We publish rare and vintage Golden Age illustrated books, in high-quality colour editions, so that the masterful artwork and story-telling can continue to delight both young and old.

‘A Fairy Garland – Being Fairy Tales from the Old French’ contains a collection of stories, written by Charles Perrault, Madame D’Aulnoy and Count Anthony Hamilton. These individuals were among the first writers to bring magical children’s stories into the literary mainstream, proving to their original seventeenth century readers that such works were important, enjoyable, as well as thought-provoking. The stories in this particular text encompass favourites such as Perrault’s ‘Puss in Boots’ and ‘Riquet with the Tuft’ as well as other less well-known classics such as D’Aulnoy’s ‘The Green Dragon’, ‘Princess Rosetta’ and ‘The Blue Bird’ and Count Antony Hamilton’s dazzling ‘Mayblossom’. This edition of ‘A Fairy Garland’ further contains a set of dazzling coloured illustrations by a true master of the ‘Golden Age'; Edmund Dulac (1882 – 1953). A French artist himself, Dulac had a particular affinity with these Old French tales as well as a rigorously painterly background. The end result was beautifully coloured images which further refined the wonderful stories of Perrault, D’Aulnoy and Hamilton – all presented together in this book. Pook Press celebrates the great ‘Golden Age of Illustration‘ in children’s literature – a period of unparalleled excellence in book illustration. We publish rare and vintage Golden Age illustrated books, in high-quality colour editions, so that the masterful artwork and story-telling can continue to delight both young and old.

Unique anthology presents scores of color and black-and-white artworks by 22 of the best women illustrators of the early 20th century, including Beatrix Potter, Kate Greenaway, and Jessie Willcox Smith.

The collection Croatian Tales of Long Ago is considered to be a masterpiece and features a series of newly written fairy tales heavily inspired by motifs taken from ancient Slavic mythology of pre-Christian Croatia. Croatian Tales of Long Ago are seen as one of the most typical examples of the writing style of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić. The book has been compared by literary critics to Hans Christian Andersen and J. R. R. Tolkien due to the way it combines original fantasy plots with folk mythology.

The author's insights about a variety of natural phenomena contribute to our understanding of some of the great medical puzzles of the era. -- Back cover.

Reproduction of the original: A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden by Walter Crane

Old, Old Fairy Tales contains several of the best loved fairy-tales by true masters of the genre, including the Brother's Grimm's 'Briar Rose', 'The Frog Prince' and 'Rumplestiltskin', Charles Perrault's 'Beauty and the Beast', 'Blue Beard' and 'Puss in Boots' as well as Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Little Mermaid.' Old English tales such as 'Jack, the Giant Killer' are also encompassed. All of these wonderful tales are accompanied by colour, and black-and-white illustrations by Anne Anderson (1874-1930). She was a much celebrated Scottish illustrator, primarily known for her art nouveau children's book illustrations, although she also painted etched and designed greeting cards. These truly delicate and elegant works signalled the apogee of the Edwardian Era and the so-called 'golden age' of British illustration; as much appreciated today as they were then. The fairy-tales are presented here in their original translations, alongside Anderson's beautiful images. Pook Press celebrates the great ‘Golden Age of Illustration‘ in children’s classics and fairy tales – a period of unparalleled excellence in book illustration. We publish rare and vintage Golden Age illustrated books, in high-quality colour editions, so that the masterful artwork and story-telling can continue to delight both young and old.