Enchanting and Fine, and with the Rarely Seen Box and Almost Never Seen Glassine

THE BLUE BIRD. A FAIRY PLAY IN SIX ACTS.

(ROBINSON, F. CAYLEY, Illustrator). (BINDINGS - PUBLISHER'S BINDING). MAETERLINCK, MAURICE.

(New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1911). 260 x 195 mm. (10 x 7 3/4"). xvi, 211 pp.Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. First Edition Thus.

Charming sky blue publisher's cloth, upper cover with floral frame in gilt, pink, and green populated by blue birds, central panel with gilt lettering, smooth spine with gilt lettering, top edge gilt. In its original (slightly torn) glassine and original (somewhat faded and slightly rubbed) blue cardboard box with printed paper label on lid (the box perhaps repaired, but, if so, done with great skill). With 25 color plates by F. Cayley Robinson, tipped onto heavy stock. Three plates with corner creases, otherwise A NEAR-PRISTINE COPY.

This copy of Maeterlinck's iconic work of Symbolist drama is offered here in its immaculate publisher's binding, and retains its original fragile dust jacket and cardboard box. Our author, Belgian poet, dramatist, and essayist Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) won the Nobel Prize for Literature 1911, the year the present edition was released. First performed in 1908, "The Blue Bird" is the story of two young siblings, Mytyl and Tyltyl, who are sent on a search for the Blue Bird of Happiness by the fairy Bérylune. The two learn the meaning and importance of true happiness through a journey populated by allegorical characters and a final act of joy-bringing generosity close to home. The play was a massive international success and was translated into English the year after its initial French publication by Maeterlinck's friend, Dutch-British journalist and intellectual Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (1865-1921). Teixeira de Mattos writes in the introduction to the present "Edition De Luxe" that this translation includes the "latest alterations and additions made by the author in view of the Paris edition of the play," although it includes the "Forest Scene" which had been cut from that production, ensuring that this edition is "complete at all points . . . and the fullest edition published." The enchanting plates that accompany this edition are the work of painter, set designer, and book illustrator F. Cayley Robinson (1862-1927), who studied art in London, Paris, and Florence, and was much influenced by Edward Burne-Jones and other Pre-Raphaelites. Robinson had created the London stage sets for the play the previous year at the Haymarket Theatre; DNB tells us that these sets were "his triumph in this field." These illustrations are dreamlike, with swaths of pastel colors suffusing the fairy-tale scenes that are in turn ethereal and gently comical. This book is rarely seen in such fine condition as here, and very infrequently retains the fragile original box and glassine. (ST20731)

Price: $1,100.00