Description
Signed limited edition of Undine by De La Motte Fouqué, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham.
Large octavo, viii, [2], 3-136pp. Full vellum, title in gilt on front cover and spine, top edge gilt. Lacking yellow silk ties attached to covers. Solid text block, foxing to covers and spine, bottom edge of front hinge cracked. Internally fine. Previous ownership inscription to front free endpaper. Complete with fifteen full-page plates, including frontispiece. Each plate in full color, mounted to brown cardstock. All plates protected by captioned tissue guards. (Latimore & Haskell 34)
One of 1,000 limited edition copies, this one numbered 752. Signed by the illustrator, Arthur Rackham, on the limitation page.
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.
