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Edmund Dulac
Edmund Dulac's illustrations from The Arabian Nights by Laurence Housman - A book my father bought
My Mother said:
“With your Father it was either a book or something to eat”
Taking into consideration that statement and the fact book precedes something to eat, I believe it most probable that they went without their supper the day he bought this. Printed in 1907 and acquired by my Father in the mid fifties, before I was born, it was already in a sorry state and hasn’t, over the years, recovered. The binding is falling apart, pages are loose and there are signs of water damage. What is remarkably untouched and unblemished by the ravages of time however are the colour plates by Edmund Dulac. These have remained covered by titled tracing paper and are, I think, the reason my Father made this, at that time, extravagant purchase.
Edmund Dulac slideshow
01 of 51 : Stories from The Arabian Nights Retold by Laurence Houseman With Drawings by Edmund Dulac
02 of 51 : Hodder and Stoughton Publishers,London
03 of 51 : Scheharazade, the heroine of the Thousand and One Nights
04 of 51 : When having brought into submission all the rest of my race
05 of 51 : And there in the midst stood a mighty Genie
06 of 51 : She and her companion arrived at the city of Harran
07 of 51 : And taking her hand he led her to the apartments of the Queen Pirouze
08 of 51 : After these, maidens on white horses, with heads unveiled, bearing in their hands baskets of precious stones
09 of 51 : She found to her grief the place where Codadad had lain left vacant
10 of 51 : The Princess of Deryabar
11 of 51 : And presently, feeling lifted by men’s hands
12 of 51 : The ship struck upon a rock
13 of 51 : Reaching his farthest wounded the giant in the knee
14 of 51 : The lady advanced to meet him
15 of 51 : A city among the Isles named Deryabar
16 of 51 : Presently in the distance he perceived a light
17 of 51 : Pirouze, the fairest and most honourably born
18 of 51 : There appeared before him an old man of venerable appearance
19 of 51 : And ever with the tears falling from her eyes she sighed and sang
20 of 51 : For many months he travelled without clue
21 of 51 : All this time the Princess had been watching the combat from the roof of the palace
22 of 51 : In the garden of the summer palace all was silence and solitude
23 of 51 : Sat by the lake and solaced sweetly with love
24 of 51 : It was in vain that all the wisest physicians in the country were summoned into consultation
25 of 51 : She cried
26 of 51 : Till the tail of her mirror contented her
27 of 51 : She gave orders for a rich banquet to be prepared
28 of 51 : He saw black eunuchs lying asleep
29 of 51 : When Morgiana who had remained all this time on the watch
30 of 51 : Then for the last figure of all she drew out the dagger
31 of 51 : At so arrogant a claim all the courtiers burst into loud laughter
32 of 51 : As he descended, the daylight in which hitherto he had been travelling faded from view
33 of 51 : She poured into each jar in turn a sufficient quantity of the boiling oil to scald its occupant to death
34 of 51 : “Sir”, said he, “I have brought my oil a great distance to sell to-morrow”
35 of 51 : Having transformed himself by disguise
36 of 51 : This way and that she led him blindfold
37 of 51 : Ali Baba departed for the town a well satisfied man
38 of 51 : As soon as he came in she began to jeer at him
39 of 51 : Greater still was the exultation of a greedy nature like that of Cassim’s
40 of 51 : Mustapha doubted much of his ability to refrain from question
41 of 51 : Began to heap upon me terms of the most violent and shameful abuse
42 of 51 : Thus by her wicked machinations the city became a lake
43 of 51 : Great was the astonishment of the Vizier and the Sultan’s escort
44 of 51 : Their chief in a low but distinct voice uttered the two words “Open Sesame!”
45 of 51 : She went on to vent her malice upon the city and islands
46 of 51 : The cup of wine which she gives him each night contains a sleeping-draught
47 of 51 : Supposing me asleep they began to talk
48 of 51 : The queen of the Ebony Isles
49 of 51 : No sooner had the monarch seen them, so strange of form and so brilliant and diverse in hue
50 of 51 : Recalling the fisherman by a swift messenger
51 of 51 : He arrived within sight of a palace of shining marble