Edmund Dulac's Fairy Tale Book

Edmund Dulac was a master of the dreamscape. His fairies have translucent wings. His forests breathe. His princesses look like they stepped out of a Pre-Raphaelite painting into another century entirely. This collection, first published in the early 20th century, gathers fairy tales from across the globe and surrounds them with some of the most coveted illustrations in publishing history. Each page is a window into a world where frogs pull carriages, princes become birds, and a talking crayfish dispenses wisdom to the worthy. The stories span continents: a Russian boy who crawls inside his horse's ear to save a kingdom, French daughters navigating a mother's strange favor, Eastern European nobility transformed by magic into creatures of forest and sky. These are not the sanitized versions of later anthologies. Here be moral lessons and true transformations, wishes that cost everything and love that conquers the impossible. For anyone who has ever believed in fairy tales, or who understands why collectors pay fortunes for first editions, this book is a portal to a world where magic is still possible.