THE HOUSE OF JOY
- 1895
1895. Housman, Laurence. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1895. Original apple-green cloth pictorially decorated in dark green and gilt.
First Edition of Housman's second book -- following his similar-content and similarly-bound A FARM IN FAIRYLAND of 1894 -- a collection of eight fairy tales written and illustrated by him, and with the illustrations engraved by his sister Clemence. (Their brother A[lfred]. E[dward]. wasn't too shabby a literary guy, as well.) The illustrations are some of Laurence's most considered and intricate. The foliage backgrounds of various textures also show the expertise of Clemence's engraving technique. She inspired the delightful story "The Luck of the Roses," which Laurence dedicated to her, about a garden of red roses turned white by the death of a fairy. The accompanying drawing, of a couple bathed in lantern light as they peer at the fairy spirit, is a masterwork of light and dark, a homage to [Arthur] Hughes as well as Durer and Rembrandt. Here too is the equally evocative "Happy Returns," a story of old age and youthfulness when a fisherman discovers a magic fish. Laurence drew the grotesque atmosphere of the tale in a silhouette fisherman, his back turned to the viewer so that he becomes a mere rigid figure of terror, being rowed by the swirling fish-spirit into a pool of forbidding darkness [Engen]. This copy is very good-plus, perhaps near-fine (spine slightly darkened with minor rubbing at the ends, cloth slightly bubbled at the very top of the front cover). Engen pp 70-71; NCBEL III 632 & 1098.
First Edition of Housman's second book -- following his similar-content and similarly-bound A FARM IN FAIRYLAND of 1894 -- a collection of eight fairy tales written and illustrated by him, and with the illustrations engraved by his sister Clemence. (Their brother A[lfred]. E[dward]. wasn't too shabby a literary guy, as well.) The illustrations are some of Laurence's most considered and intricate. The foliage backgrounds of various textures also show the expertise of Clemence's engraving technique. She inspired the delightful story "The Luck of the Roses," which Laurence dedicated to her, about a garden of red roses turned white by the death of a fairy. The accompanying drawing, of a couple bathed in lantern light as they peer at the fairy spirit, is a masterwork of light and dark, a homage to [Arthur] Hughes as well as Durer and Rembrandt. Here too is the equally evocative "Happy Returns," a story of old age and youthfulness when a fisherman discovers a magic fish. Laurence drew the grotesque atmosphere of the tale in a silhouette fisherman, his back turned to the viewer so that he becomes a mere rigid figure of terror, being rowed by the swirling fish-spirit into a pool of forbidding darkness [Engen]. This copy is very good-plus, perhaps near-fine (spine slightly darkened with minor rubbing at the ends, cloth slightly bubbled at the very top of the front cover). Engen pp 70-71; NCBEL III 632 & 1098.
Details
Title
THE HOUSE OF JOY
Author
Housman, Laurence
Condition
Unknown
Date
1895