The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck

L'Oiseau bleu, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. Illustrations by F. Cayley Robinson. Methuen & Co. Ltd. Edition de Luxe 1911.

The play premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1908, directed by the Konstantin Stanislavski, and was presented on Broadway in 1910. Maeterlinck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911.

Tyltyl and Mytyl, two poor children, are visited by a fairy. She gives them a mission to seek out the Blue Bird of Happiness. To aid them, they receive a hat with a diamond that allows them to see the true souls of all things. The the stones in the house walls become gemstones: ”All stones are valuable, if one only sees it”.
Their dog and cat can speak and are happy to be understood by the children. The water takes on a shimmering form, the fire sweeps around. The bread comes to life and the numbers dance out of the clock. Light is a beautiful being, appointed to be the children’s guide in their quest.

First, they search in the Garden of Memory, where they meet their deceased grandparents and the siblings lost in infancy.

They continue to the Palace of Night, with its dark halls of sickness, war, terror, and horrors.

Then they come to the Forest and meet the trees, who express grief over humankind evil.

Next they discover the Garden of Temporary Luxuries, where they also finds the Cave of Misery.

In the Kingdom of the Future, they meet Father Time and all the unborn children occupied developing their special talents.

But the Blue Bird continues to elude them. The children are tired and long for their parents. So they return home, accepting that they have failed to complete their quest.

But then they discover that their own grey dove - has turned blue 💙.

#fairytaleart #fairytaleillustration #antiquarian #fairyplay #nobelprize #victorianbooks #mauricemaeterlinck #fcaleyrobinson #thebluebird #loiseaubleu
#vintagebooks #PixelfedBooks #bookcollecting
An update on my Nancy Drew collection and display ✨️
I know it's pretty cluttered, but I only have the box and one shelf that I'm working with, so it has to work for now 😅

#NancyDrew #books #VintageBooks #BookCollection #BookCollector #hobby #NancyDrewBooks #NancyDrewPcGames #BookDisplay #PhotoOfTheDay #potd
The Dreamer of Dreams by the Queen of Roumania, illustrated by Edmund Dulac. First edition, Hodder & Stoughton 1916.
An enchanting volume, luminous from the very cover. The illustrations are as evocative as the story itself.
It is a tale of a court painter who paints for the King. In the portrait he is creating, only the Queen’s eyes are missing. In a dream, he beholds a woman’s face with eyes he can never forget. Frustrated, he is haunted by the knowledge that he cannot paint those eyes unless he sees them in reality.
He sets out on a dreamlike quest to seek her out.
#TheDreamerOfDreams #EdmundDulac #VintageBooks #Fairytales #Fairytaleart #Fairytaleillustration #GoldenAgeOfIllustration #BookHistory #Antiquarian

#1246 Peter Ackroyd - Chaucer: Brief Lives. Vintage Books, London, Random House, 2005, 1st Vintage edition.

#PeterAckroyd #VintageBooks #Chaucer #GeoffreyChaucer #BookOfTheDay

This book blew minds in 1963. Everyone thought spies were heroes. Le Carré said: think again. The gray areas will haunt you.
#VintageBooks #BookTok #Books #ads
{aff} https://amzn.to/4hkhjY4
Thought I'd share some of the vintage/antique book finds from the last ~6 months. ​

Left to right, top to bottom:

In a glass darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu from 1948 — I had been looking for a vintage copy of Carmilla with no luck until I realised it had originally been published in a short stories collection. It's a blue clothbound under the paper slipcover.

Consult Me — undated but from at least 1904 going by the inscription inside. The entry on how to ride a bicycle is hilariously unhelpful.

Modern Cookery by Eliza Acton from 1851 — the spine is missing so will need to do a repair job, otherwise in really good condition for its age.

The Best Way Book 3 — undated but this was originally published sometime around WWI possibly 1915. I now have all three Edwardian volumes in my collection!

Dracula by Bram Stoker — undated but most probably from 40s or 50s as per some research. I had been looking for a 'pocket sized hardback' clothbound edition for a long while now. And this one was also within my budget (most antique/vintage editions of the book go for at least a couple hundred quids at the cheapest).

Now, the only book I am actively looking for is a 'pocket sized hardback' clothbound edition of
Frankenstein. It has the same issue as Dracula. It's gonna be a luck thing to find one. ​

#LowSpoonsHistorian #History #AntiqueBooks #VintageBooks #BookLover #BooksOfTheFediverse #Dracula #ModernCookery #BestWayBook #ConsultMe #InAGlassDarkly #SheridanLeFanu #ElizaActon #BramStoker #SocialHistory #HistoryFromBelow
I will try not to rant today! Come listen to more old children's stories of Uncle Wiggily avoiding scary situations at 1pm NZDT twitch.tv/jevvvnz #VintageBooks #OldBooks #ReadingAloud #NoPolitics #NoSports

I found it! #AutisticMemory FTW!

https://www.ecrater.com/p/5078332/vintage-1983-snow-white-all-action-pop-up

I told you it was a Brown-Watson! I recognised that cover, that was the version we had.

#Nostalgia #VintageBooks #80s #VojtechKubasta

#BrownWatson feel like a shadow of their former selves. We had loads of their books back in the day, very charming. Now their website shows a few very generic looking books.

I vaguely remember this book as being published by them here in the UK, but according to this site, it wasn't.

https://illustrated-books.co.uk/product/snow-white-pop-up-book-by-vojtech-kubasta/

This says 1961, so maybe we had a later edition published by Brown Watson?

I wish we still got stuff like this. Unfortunately I can't do a flip through of that book as it belongs to one of my sisters and she took it with her a long time ago.

#OldBooks #VintageBooks #nostalgia #80s #books

How many forgotten words will we discover today? Join me at 1pm NZDT as we finish Louisa May Alcott's Jack and Jill: a Village Story. twitch.tv/jevvvnz #VintageBooks #OldBooks #ReadingAloud #NoPolitics #NoSports