|
Showing 1 - 4 of
4 matches in All Departments
Illustrated by Ivan Bilibin
|
Five Children and It (Paperback)
E. Nesbit; Illustrated by E. Nesbit; Introduction by Gillian Avery; Notes by Gillian Avery
|
R466
R410
Discovery Miles 4 100
Save R56 (12%)
|
Ships in 10 - 15 working days
|
While exploring the environs of their summer home, five brothers
and sisters find a Psammead, or Sand-fairy, in a nearby gravel pit:
"Its eyes were on long horns like a snail's eyes, and it could move
them in and out like telescopes; it had ears like a bat's ears, and
its tubby body was shaped like a spider's and covered with thick
soft fur; its legs and arms were furry too, and it had hands and
feet like a monkey's." The Psammead is magical and, every day, the
ancient and irritable creature grants each of them a wish that
lasts until sunset. Soon, though, they find their wishes never seem
to turn out right and often have unexpected--and
humorous--consequences. But when an accidental wish goes terribly
wrong, the children learn that magic, like life, can be as
complicated as it is exciting. This edition contains an enchanting
introduction by children's literature scholar Gillian Avery about
the complex and unconventional Nesbit, and includes all of the
original illustrations, suggestions for further reading, and
explanatory notesFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the
leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking
world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a
global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across
genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide
authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by
distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as
up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
The famous stage-designer Ivan Bilibin was a self-taught artist who
was lucky enough to be offered the commission of a lifetime at the
very start of his career. In 1899 the Department for the Production
of State Documents asked this young Russian artist to illustrate a
series of fairy tales, a task that took him four years to complete
and inspired his finest work, reflecting his deep love for his
country and his passionate interest in its national dress and
wooden architecture. This, with ten other traditional tales, make
up the collection for which all Bilibin's original artwork has been
faithfully reproduced. Gillian Avery has provided a retelling of
the texts which admirably complements Bilibin's distinctive
illustration, itself rooted in the stylized forms of Russian folk
and medieval art.
Gillian Avery, historian of children's books and novelist whose
first book THE WARDEN'S NEICE has become a modern classic of
children's literature, has made a very personal selection of
favourite poems. If children like them as much as she does, then
(she says) they will stay in the mind long after their readers have
grown out of childhood. Her taste is for the Augustan rather than
the Romantic writers, but her choice of over two hundred and fifty
pieces ranges widely, from ballads to Ted Hughes, from Ben Jonson
to Noel Coward. The illustrations are taken from the books of
natural history made by Thomas Bewick, the celebrated English wood
engraver.
|
|