The Marvellous History of the Shadowless Man; The Cold Heart.
London: Holden & Hardingham, [1913]. Thirty tipped-in color illustrations by Forster Robson. First edition thus. Publisher's green cloth, marvelously titled and stamped in gilt, teg. in scarce publisher's dust jacket (15/- net). Quarto. xiv, 93; [ii], 73. 10.5" x 8" Light and faint foxing throughout, extremities lightly pressed, some minimal bubbling to boards and spine, gilt extremely bright and crisp, still very good in near fine lightly toned dust jacket with some shallow chipping extremities (no loss to text or decorations), in mylar cover. Item #211317
SUPERNATURAL TALES FROM THE BLACK FOREST
A shadow, intangible yet visible to the world, sinister and sublime, and in this tale, powerful enough to attract the devil’s bargain. The aspiring Peter Schlemihl impulsively agrees to sell his shadow for a bottomless sack of gold, then watches as the devil, in a supernatural act of legerdemain, rolls it up and carries it off . Peter’s travails have only just begun. It’s significant that Chamisso’s tale introduces, for the first time, the shadow as an entity, an element of the individual fabric, a concept further explored in esoterica, psychology, and philosophy. A long shadow indeed!
Wilhelm Hauff (1802-1827) produced a startling variety of works in his short lifetime, and his novella The Cold Heart (Das Kalte Herz) was the first of his tales to appear in English translation and has remained in print ever since. Hauff is a colorful and engaging teller of tales, many of which are mainstays in the canon of European children' s literature. His stories like “Little Muck”, “Dwarf Nose”, and “The Severed Hand” are grounded in German folklore but with an imaginative twist, a style that sets him apart from the Grimms, who recorded their material without embellishment. This tale of another Peter, beguiled by an elf who promises him wealth and happiness, has a more forgiving ending than that of the wretched Peter Schlemihl’s.
Combined here for the first time and brought to life by the stark, yet beautiful illustrations of Forster Robson, and complete with the exceedingly scarce original dust jacket.
Price: $750.00