Description
First edition of Undine by De La Motte Fouqué, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham.
Large octavo, vii, 136pp. Blue cloth, title stamped in blue with illustrations on front cover and spine. Top edge dyed blue. Illustrated endpapers. Stated “New Impressions… June 1919.” on copyright page. Solid text block, light wear to edges, some foxing to endpapers. Previous ownership inscription on front free endpaper. In the publisher’s dust jacket, some chipping and light wear to corners and edges of spine. Two small archival repairs to verso. Complete with fifteen full-page plates by Arthur Rackham, including frontispiece, all with captioned tissue guard.
Undine, originally written in German in 1811, is the fairy tale of a water nymph who falls in love with Huldbrand, a knight exploring the forest to win the affection of a duke’s daughter in town. The story was immensely popular in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with multiple translations and an operatic adaptation performed in 1816. Fouque’s story served as inspiration for other notable stories, including Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.
