FIRST EDITION IN DUSTWRAPPER
Undine by De La Motte Fouqué
Heinemann, 1909.
First edition illustrated by Rackham. 4to. Original blue pictorial cloth with elaborate gilt decoration to spine and gilt titles and vignette to upper cover. Top edge blue. Protected by the original printed dustwrapper. Pictorial endpapers, numerous chapter headings and black and white vignettes. Fifteen lovely colour plates, mounted under captioned tissue guards. A near fine copy with some fading to the spine, in a very good dustwrapper indeed, with some minor wear to edges and toning to the spine.
Rackham's illustrations to this tale are hauntingly beautiful. The 1909 Christmas Bookman review of this volume reads, "The story of Undine, the water-spirit, and the Knight of Huldbrand who wedded her, seems to have been waiting for Mr Rackham's brush... There could have been, perhaps, no more fitting theme for all the imaginative beauty and force of his work than this weird and beautiful romance."
Of the tale itself, George MacDonald wrote "Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine; that is a fairytale... of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful."
Stock ID: 44557
