Book Description

This volume of the Golden Age of Illustration Series contains Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Red Shoes’. This classic fairy tale has been continuously in print in different editions since its first publication, with many, many, different artists illustrating the story over the years. This edition features a beautiful collection of the best of that art, taken from the likes of Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Harry Clarke, Honor Appleton, Jennie Harbour, among others. This series of books celebrates the Golden Age of Illustration. During this period, the popularity, abundance and – most importantly – the unprecedented upsurge in the quality of illustrated works marked an astounding change in the way that publishers, artists and the general public came to view this hitherto insufficiently esteemed art form. The Golden Age of Illustration Series, has sourced the rare original editions of these books and reproduced the beautiful art work in order to build a unique collection of illustrated fairy tales. ‘The Red Shoes’ was first published in April of 1845, as part of Andersen’s New Fairy Tales: First Volume, Third Collection. Andersen explained the source of the story as being an incident he had witnessed as a small child. His father, he stated, had been sent a piece of red silk by a rich lady, who wanted the material converted into a pair of dancing slippers. Andersen’s father produced the slippers, but the rich woman was horrified at the result, and in reaction to her harsh criticism, he cut the shoes up in front of her.