Aladdin: and Other Tales From The Arabian Nights (Everyman's Library CHILDREN'S CLASSICS) - Hardcover

Robinson, W Heath

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857159128 ISBN 13: 9781857159127

Publisher: Childrens Classics, 1993

From the Eastern folk tales that make up the vast collection known as THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS certain stories - of Aladdin, Sindbad and Ali Baba - have become everlasting favourites with children and a magical ingredient of Christmas pantomine. First introduced to Europe in the early eighteenth century by the French orientalist, Antione Galland, who translated and bowdlerized the stories to suit contemporary taste, this edition presents the fourteen best-known tales selected from an English text of 1821. The illustrations are reproduced from a larger collection in 1899. William Heath Robinson then at the start of his career, was commissioned with four others and his drawings (much the best) reveal a gentle, romantic charm that has been forgotten in the success of his later, purely comic work.

About the Author:

William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) was the youngest of the three artist sons of a wood engraver. Born in Hornsey Rise, north London, he studied at Islington School of Art and briefly at the Royal Academy Schools. His grandfather, Thomas Robinson, had been a bookbinder working in Newcastle for the famous wood engraver, Thomas Bewick, and subsequently took up engraving and illustrating himself. It is not surprising, therefore, that all three brothers - Thomas, Charles and William - became book and magazine illustrators. William was still in his twenties when he was commissioned, with other young artists - Helen Stratton, A.D. McCormick, A. L. Davis and A. E. Norbury - to illustrate a collection of stories from The Arabian Nights, published in 1899. William's contribution was by far the largest and the best, demonstrating the beauty of line and composition that characterized his illustrations for other literary classics. But now he is chiefly remembered for his humorous drawings and the weird contraptions that gave his name to the English language for any mechanical device 'absurdly complicated in design and having a simple function'. At the Memorial Exhibition after his death, one of his few peers in comic drawing, Nicolas Bentley, compared him to Leonardo da Vinci, claiming that Heath Robinson 'had the advantage of Leonardo, in that some of his inventions did at least look as if they might have worked'.

Synopsis:

The 14 best-known Eastern folk tales from the 1821 English text of "The Thousand and One Nights" are reproduced here with illustrations from the larger collection of 1899. Aladdin, Sinbad and Ali Baba are among the tales retold in this new edition.

• Publisher: Childrens Classics
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1857159128
• ISBN 13: 9781857159127
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352