Once Upon A Time: The Fairy Tale World of Arthur Rackham

by Margery Darrell (Editor)

Rip Van Winkle, Red Riding Hood and A Christmas Carol are among the classics in this collection of tales illustrated by the English artist

Genres: Fantasy, Art, Childrens, Classics

296 pages, Hardcover

First published October 17, 1972

Reviews

[Marquise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology of varied stories illustrated by Arthur Rackham contains the following, in order: "Rip van Winkle", seven of the Grimms' fairy tales (including "The Lady and the Lion"), "Alice in Wonderland," three of Shakespeare's plays ("The Taming of the Shrew," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Romeo & Juliet"), Dicken's "A Christmas Carol," some of Aesop's fables, and "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens."

It's a nice book for young readers especially, and I liked to see some I'd not seen before, such as the Shakespeare plays and "Peter Pan." Each of these stories were also published individually, for those who like only one or two and would want them separately, so look those up.

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I debated long and hard with myself about buying this book....admittedly second-hand in great condition for a book published in 1978 by the Book Club. And it's an interesting collection of tales illustrated by Arthur Rackham. I've always loved the work of Rackham. I was exposed to it as a child and my implanted memories of fairy tales and folk tales are very much inhabited by the figures and incredible landscapes and twisted trees (with faces) that Rackham managed to create. I learned, for the first time, from this book, that Rackham insisted on picking his own lines from the text to illustrate. I've often wondered about this; eg. from Alice in Wonderland....Alice with the pig...."It grunted again, so violently, that she looked down upon its face in some alarm". Why would you chose that line to illustrate? But he did ....and it worked.
I've also found with illustrators from the golden age of children's books....around 1900....that the colours always seemed rather dark. And I guess two things are at play here. One is that Rackham's work, anyway, is invariable pen and wash...or just pen. The straight pen drawings seemed to have survived well and reproduced well but the colour's in his coloured illustrations have darkened and maybe just haven't been reproduced all that well.
I was able to compare a few illustrations in this book with those in a recent large format book: "Arthur Rackham: A life with illustration" and could see that the reproduction in the latter are much clearer....the pen work sharp and clear and the colours lighter and brighter. So unfortunately, this current book suffers a lot in comparison. Offsetting that is the fact that the current book has some stories that I have not seen illustrated by Rackham before: Fables from Aesop, The Lady and the Lion. I'm not even sure that have seen the whole of Rip Van Winkle illustrated by Rackham.
The stories, are classics, which I, more or less take as given ....although frequently they vary a bit depending on the editor or story teller. But I bought the book for the illustrations and I'm not disappointed.
According to the text, Rackham himself was a bit gnomish...like many of his characters...and he even drew himself in the role of the mad hatter in Alice in Wonderland. But he ran a tight ship domestically, apparently.....always frugal and pretty strict with his kids. Frankly, he doesn't sound like a lot of fun....though I recall reading somewhere else about some of his travel in Europe as a young man and he seemed to be a bit more "fun-loving" there. But what a superb artist. I notice that a number of modern children's book illustrators acknowledge a debt to Rackham (eg. Lizbeth Zwerger...and you can see it in her figures).
One curious fact. I notice that a number of other reviewers mention Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens in their reviews of this book. But in my edition there is no section on Peter Pan. I'm guessing that there must have been a few editions with different content.
Overall, I'm quite happy that I made the purchase and happy to give the book 4 stars.

[Suzanne Fournier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been delving more into Rackham's work and this is a compilation of stories he illustrated as well as a short biography. Durrell's bio is far harsher and mean than James Hamilton's. Some of the stories are abridged and others are full. I skipped the Christmas Carol and Alice's adventures in wonderland as I already have these stories illustrated by Rackham. I also didn't read the Shakespeare's but looked at the illustrations. I was fascinated by Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.

Overall I wish more illustrations had been included but it's a good introduction to Rackham's work.

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

BOTTOM LINE: A glorious big book, filled with classic stories and fables, and Arthur Rackham's marvelous drawings for them, quite a sumptuous production, beautiful to look at.

What I thought was a collection of Rackham drawings turned out to be a collection of bits from famous children's stories along with his drawings for them, plus the entire CHRISTMAS CAROL from Dickens, and what appears to be the complete PETER PAN IN KENSINGTON GARDENS, Barrie's first novel about Peter, and quite different from the current image of that renowned character. I'd forgotten how dark and sometimes cruel his drawings were, and how sharply edged the fables and fairy tales were too, lovely, scary stuff.

Table of Contents:
ARTHUR RACKHAM, Margery Darrell (biographical article)
RIP VAN WINKLE, Washington Irving - complete
SEVEN FAIRY TALES, Brothers' Grimm
The Lady and the Lion
The Frog Prince
Rapunzel
Briar Rose
Red Riding Hood
Hansel and Grethel
The Seven Ravens
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (excerpts)
Down the Rabbit Hole
The Pool of Tears
A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale
The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill
Advice from a Caterpillar
Pig and Pepper
A Mad Tea-Party
The Queen's Croquet-Ground
The Mock-Turtle's Story
The Lobster Quadrille
Who Stole the Tarts
Alice's Evidence
THREE TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE, Charles and Mary Lamb
Taming of the Shrew
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Romeo and Juliet
A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Charles Dickens (complete)
FABLES, Aesop
The Kingdom of the Lion
The North Wind and the Sun
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
The Crab and his Mother
The Hound and the Hare
The Ox and the Frog
The Kid and the Wolf
The Fox and the Grapes
The Bear and the Fox
The Gnat and the Bull
The Frogs Asking for a King
The Quack Frog
The Lion, Jupiter, and the Elephant
PETER PAN IN KENSINGTON GARDENS, J. M. Barrie (complete?)

The fables are only bits, put to show the pictures rather than the story.

[Jaimie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this book expecting another Rackham biography, but it is actually only a few pages of prefatory material with 7 of the Rackham book compiled. I'm pretty sure that they're condensed (Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens would take up more than half of this tome at full length), but it still has a good selection of the illustrations - which are clearly the important parts!

[Rachel C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic stories and illustrations for tweens and up.

[Austen to Zafón · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous collection of snippets (and sometimes full copies) of stories Rackham illustrated, along with this work, in addition to critical articles and essays about him.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the stories in this I had read in other collections, so the content was not new to me. I just love the illustrations. Rackham's images are so lovely.