'Of all literary fakes this is surely the most impudent, ingenious, and successful. The Comtesse D'Aulnoy was never in Spain (but) she was a born traveller. Not without reason have the editors of The Broadway Travellers included her fiction in their library of fact. For, despite its falseness, it is intellectually the real thing.' Saturday Review
However her work is judged today, it seems certain that Madame D'Aulnoy was one of the most widely-read and most popular authors of her time. Seeing Spain at a strange moment in her history, it is the end of a great age. The last descendent of Charles V is king; after him the nation is destined to enter upon a new phase, under a new dynasty. After reading this journey we see and touch Spain and the reader can judge the Spanish character from a witness who saw it.

'Of all literary fakes this is surely the most impudent, ingenious, and successful. The Comtesse D'Aulnoy was never in Spain (but) she was a born traveller. Not without reason have the editors of The Broadway Travellers included her fiction in their library of fact. For, despite its falseness, it is intellectually the real thing.' Saturday Review However her work is judged today, it seems certain that Madame D'Aulnoy was one of the most widely-read and most popular authors of her time. Seeing Spain at a strange moment in her history, it is the end of a great age. The last descendent of Charles V is king; after him the nation is destined to enter upon a new phase, under a new dynasty. After reading this journey we see and touch Spain and the reader can judge the Spanish character from a witness who saw it.

An enchanting selection of Madame d'Aulnoy's seventeenth-century French fairy tales, interpreted by contemporary visual artist Natalie Frank Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville (1650-1705), also known as Madame d'Aulnoy, was a pioneer of the French literary fairy tale. Though d'Aulnoy's work now rarely appears outside of anthologies, her books were notably popular during her lifetime, and she was in fact the author who coined the term "fairy tales" (contes des fees). Presenting eight of d'Aulnoy's magical stories, The Island of Happiness juxtaposes poetic English translations with a wealth of original, contemporary drawings by Natalie Frank, one of today's most outstanding visual artists. In this beautiful volume, classic narratives are interpreted and made anew through Frank's feminist and surreal images. This feast of words and visuals presents worlds where women exercise their independence and push against rigid social rules. Fidelity and sincerity are valued over jealousy and greed, though not everything ends seamlessly. Selected tales include "Belle-Belle," where an incompetent king has his kingdom restored to him through an androgynous heroine's constancy. In "The Green Serpent," a heroine falls in love with the eponymous snake, is punished by a wicked fairy, and endures trials to prove her worthiness. And in "The White Cat," a young prince is dazzled by the astonishing powers of a feline. Jack Zipes's informative introduction offers historical context, and Natalie Frank's opening essay delves into her aesthetic approaches to d'Aulnoy's characters. An inspired integration of art and text, The Island of Happiness is filled with seductive stories of transformation and enchantment.