Page:MU KPB 016 Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures.pdf/49

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
order of the drawings has been arranged so that you may follow, if you will, the liberation of his fancy. He begins by taking us to the land of the Little People, then in Nos. 10 to 17 (which is Grimm’s Frog Prince) he keeps close to the well-known persons and stories of Faëry. Thenceforward for the most part we are among phantasies, playful or grotesque. In No. 24, for example, which he calls Once upon a Time, there seems to be a story but is none: he just brings together in a suggestive group nine or ten types without one or two of which no fairy tale is complete. All will recognise—besides the King and the Swine­herdthe Goose-girl, the Knight, the Foundling and the little Princess. When we reach Shades of Evening and The Fairy Wife, however, the book seems to lose something of definite

41