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Hardcover. Between the festive bright red covers of this 1914 collection, you'll find the children's fantasy Christmas-Tree Land and the collection of fairy tales and short stories A Christmas Posy, both by "the Jane Austen of the Nursery," author of no less than a hundred works, Mary Louisa Molesworth (1839-1921). In Christmas-Tree Land, you'll join Maia and Rollo, a brother and sister who find themselves journeying to a remote castle within a forest of fir trees, stumbling upon a fairy tale cottage in the woods, encountering a fairy godmother who may just be a witch, talking to animals, riding in flying coaches, visiting squirrels in their nests, growing feathers to commune with birds, and more. Interweaving fairy stories with animal stories, this nature-inspired fantasy celebrates the pine wood ecosystem, advocates against animal cruelty, and encourages children to learn about natural history. This charming children s story will delight fans of C. S. Lewis and E. Nesbit and is full of wintry magic on every page, including a frontispiece, title vignette, and six black-and-white plates by the great Walter Crane. Adding to this edition, A Christmas Posy collects eight charming stories, full of sweetness, sentiment, and moral lessons, as well as fairies, princesses, and dwarves and comes illustrated in frontispiece, title vignette, and 7 plates by Walter Crane, one colored in by an earlier reader. 7 1/2" X 5 1/4". xii, 191pp; 187pp, plus four pages of ads. Cheery red cloth over boards, with holly berries and blossoms in black to upper board and spine, both lettered in gilt, with angelic figure in black to upper board. Author's name rubbed from spine and title dimmed. Moderate wear to binding, with bumping and rubbing to extremities, and small tears to head and tail of spine. Hinges tender; reinforced with archival glue. Binding remains sound. Gift inscription dated Christmas 1949 to front free endpaper, number in red to front pastedown. Illustrated in a total of 15 plates by Walter Crane. Plate facing page 38 of A Christmas Posy has been colored in fairly neatly, all other plates are black-and-white, as issued. Pages are clean and unmarked. "Christmas-Tree Land, by Mrs. Molesworth, is a book to make younger readers open their eyes wide with delight. A little boy and a little girl, domiciled in a great white castle, wander on their holidays through the surrounding fir-forests, and meet with the most delightful pleasures. There is a fascinating, mysterious character in their adventures and enough of the fairylike and wonderful to puzzle and enchant all the little ones." Boston Home Journal. Seller Inventory # 9731
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