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The Brown Fairy Book.
by LANG, Andrew (ed.)
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
London, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Longmans, Green, and Co.,, 1904. First edition, first impression; a stunning copy of the ninth title in the Fairy Books series, gathering tales from North America, Brazil, Australia, Africa, Persia, India, Lapland, and the Pacific Islands. Among its 32 stories are "The Wicked Wolverine", "The Mermaid and the Boy", and "How Some Wild Animals became Tame ones". Henry Justice Ford's (1860-1941) artwork for the series "provided a benchmark in fantasy illustration" (Grolier). Though the Fairy Books are credited to Andrew Lang (1844-1912), he acknowledged in the preface to Lilac (1910) that they "have been almost wholly the work of Mrs [Leonora] Lang, who has translated and adapted them from the French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and other languages". Octavo. Original brown cloth, spine lettered and stamped with fairy devices in gilt, front cover elaborately blocked in gilt with fairy figures encircling a child upon a background of stars and vines, brown coated endpapers with illustrations in silver, edges gilt. Colour frontispiece with tissue guard, 7 colour plates, 22 uncoloured engraved plates, further engravings in the text, all by H. J. Ford. Gilt radiant, bump to spine ends, contents fresh. A fine copy. Grolier Children's 100, 51.
Synopsis
From the book:The stories in this Fairy Book come from all quarters of the world. For example, the adventures of 'Ball-Carrier and the Bad One' are told by Red Indian grandmothers to Red Indian children who never go to school, nor see pen and ink. 'The Bunyip' is known to even more uneducated little ones, running about with no clothes at all in the bush, in Australia. You may see photographs of these merry little black fellows before their troubles begin, in 'Northern Races of Central Australia,' by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. They have no lessons except in tracking and catching birds, beasts, fishes, lizards, and snakes, all of which they eat. But when they grow up to be big boys and girls, they are cruelly cut about with stone knives and frightened with sham bogies all for their good' their parents say and I think they would rather go to school, if they had their choice, and take their chance of being birched and bullied. However, many boys might think it better fun to begin to learn hunting as soon as they can walk. Other stories, like 'The Sacred Milk of Koumongoe,' come from the Kaffirs in Africa, whose dear papas are not so poor as those in Australia, but have plenty of cattle and milk, and good mealies to eat, and live in houses like very big bee-hives, and wear clothes of a sort, though not very like our own.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Peter Harrington
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 172182
- Title
- The Brown Fairy Book.
- Author
- LANG, Andrew (ed.)
- Book Condition
- Used
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Place of Publication
- London: Longmans, Green, and Co.,
- Date Published
- 1904
Terms of Sale
Peter Harrington
All major credit cards are accepted. Both UK pounds and US dollars (exchange rate to be agreed) accepted. Books may be returned within 14 days of receipt for any reason, please notify first of returned goods.
About the Seller
Peter Harrington
Biblio member since 2006
London
About Peter Harrington
Since its establishment, Peter Harrington has specialised in sourcing, selling and buying the finest quality original first editions, signed, rare and antiquarian books, fine bindings and library sets. Peter Harrington first began selling rare books from the Chelsea Antiques Market on London's King's Road. For the past twenty years the business has been run by Pom Harrington, Peter's son.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
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