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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
Stories from The Arabian Nights Retold by Laurence Houseman With Drawings by Edmund Dulac
Hodder and Stoughton Publishers,London
Scheharazade, the heroine of the Thousand and One Nights
When having brought into submission all the rest of my race
And there in the midst stood a mighty Genie
She and her companion arrived at the city of Harran
And taking her hand he led her to the apartments of the Queen Pirouze
After these, maidens on white horses, with heads unveiled, bearing in their hands baskets of precious stones
She found to her grief the place where Codadad had lain left vacant
The Princess of Deryabar
And presently, feeling lifted by men’s hands
The ship struck upon a rock
Reaching his farthest wounded the giant in the knee
The lady advanced to meet him
A city among the Isles named Deryabar
Presently in the distance he perceived a light
Pirouze, the fairest and most honourably born
There appeared before him an old man of venerable appearance
And ever with the tears falling from her eyes she sighed and sang
For many months he travelled without clue
All this time the Princess had been watching the combat from the roof of the palace
In the garden of the summer palace all was silence and solitude
Sat by the lake and solaced sweetly with love
It was in vain that all the wisest physicians in the country were summoned into consultation
She cried
Till the tail of her mirror contented her
She gave orders for a rich banquet to be prepared
He saw black eunuchs lying asleep
When Morgiana who had remained all this time on the watch
Then for the last figure of all she drew out the dagger
At so arrogant a claim all the courtiers burst into loud laughter
As he descended, the daylight in which hitherto he had been travelling faded from view
She poured into each jar in turn a sufficient quantity of the boiling oil to scald its occupant to death
“Sir”, said he, “I have brought my oil a great distance to sell to-morrow”
Having transformed himself by disguise
This way and that she led him blindfold
Ali Baba departed for the town a well satisfied man
As soon as he came in she began to jeer at him
Greater still was the exultation of a greedy nature like that of Cassim’s
Mustapha doubted much of his ability to refrain from question
Began to heap upon me terms of the most violent and shameful abuse
Thus by her wicked machinations the city became a lake
Great was the astonishment of the Vizier and the Sultan’s escort
Their chief in a low but distinct voice uttered the two words “Open Sesame!”
She went on to vent her malice upon the city and islands
The cup of wine which she gives him each night contains a sleeping-draught
Supposing me asleep they began to talk
The queen of the Ebony Isles
No sooner had the monarch seen them, so strange of form and so brilliant and diverse in hue
Recalling the fisherman by a swift messenger
He arrived within sight of a palace of shining marble