Fairyland in Art and Poetry - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805070060 ISBN 13: 9780805070064

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2002

Synopsis

Poetry to delight anyone who still believes in magic.

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."
--J. M. Barrie, Scottish, 1860-1937, from Peter Pan

The art of Englishman Richard Doyle offers lush glimpses into the world of the wee folk. Doyle's fairies troop through meadows, twirl in the moonlight, and enlist birds and bugs in games and mischief. His whimsical illustrations, chosen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, are paired with poems by William Shakespeare, John Keats, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Butler Yeats, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Stevie Smith, and Langston Hughes, among others.

Fairy sweethearts among the roses illustrate Wilder's "The Fairies in the Sunshine," elf babies in a snail race match Robert Graves's "I'd Love to Be a Fairy's Child," and a fairy queen carried by butterflies reimagines Shakespeare's popular "Queen Mab" soliloquy. A magical treasury that will enchant readers of all ages.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Doyle was one of the most popular illustrators of the Victorian era. Described by a contemporary as "just the sort of artist a child would ask to do a funny man on paper," he was best known for his "fairyland" figures.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-7 Richard Doyle's classic 1870 book In Fairyland is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the museum has reproduced his charming and romantic chromolithographs along with fairy poetry. The selections are predominantly by 19th-century English favorites (John Keats, William Shakespeare, Walter de la Mare), though American, Irish, and Scottish poets are included, as well as some early 20th-century authors (Stevie Smith, Langston Hughes, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Eleanor Farjeon). The 22 poems, all metered and rhymed, match the spirit of the illustrations, and will appeal to readers in their Secret Garden or Anne of Green Gables stage. Several of the poems are excerpted (Shakespeare's from plays, without citation), and readers may be getting more than they bargained for with Keats's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" or the excerpt from William Butler Yeats's "The Stolen Child," though these are worthy verses to be haunted by. With its beautiful colors and heavy-stock paper, this attractive book will be picked up as light fare-and readers may enjoy it as such. Libraries that never have enough "pictures of fairies" will certainly want at least one copy. -Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0805070060
• ISBN 13: 9780805070064
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Doyle Richard