Description
Signed limited edition of Undine by De La Motte Fouqué, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham.
Large octavo, viii, [2], 3-136pp. Full green morocco, gilt trim on covers. Five raised bands, title in gilt on spine, decorative gilt compartments. Top edge gilt, with gilt turn-ins and marbled endpapers. Finely bound by Bayntun-Riviere of Bath, England, with bindery imprint on front endpaper. Solid text block, light sunning to spine, Internally fine. Complete with fifteen full-page plates, including frontispiece. Each plate in full color, mounted to brown cardstock. All plates protected by captioned tissue guards. Housed in a custom cloth slipcase.
(Latimore & Haskell 34)
One of 1,000 limited edition copies, this one numbered 24. 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.
