~Quote

  
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment
like reading!
How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book!
-- When I have a house of my own,
I shall be miserable if I have not
an excellent library.” 
by  Jane Austen

When We Were Very Young
by A.A Milne (first published in 1924)

“The Lady of the Lake” by Lancelot Speed,
from The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights
(Frederick Warne and Co., 1912)

The Lady of the Lake is the most mystical character
of any in the Arthurian tales. 
Much has been written about her and the land
of Avalon, Ynes Affalon, which means the Land
of Apples.  Morgan le Fay is one of these women,
and she herself is a half sister of King Arthur,
an enchantress, healer, queen, and goddess.  
Morgana is sometimes regarded as one of
the aspects of the goddess Morrigan. 
(via)

Hansel and Gretel vintage illustration
Art unknown to me
~READ THE STORY HERE~

Postcard advertising
The Hunchback of Notre Dame 
at the Harris Theatre, Chicago, 1923 
(via)

Books are like …

… lobster shells,
we surround ourselves with ‘em,
then we grow out of ‘em and leave ‘em behind,
as evidence of our earlier stages of development.

by Dorothy L. Sayers
Art by Carl Spitzweg

The Frog Prince
Art by Paul Hey (1867 1952)
READ STORY HERE!!!

~Book

The Next Full Moon by Carolyn Turgeon,
a retelling of “The Swan Maiden”

This thoroughly compelling, gorgeously told tale,
begins as the weather turns warm enough to
swim in the local lake, twelve-year-old Ava
is looking forward to a lazy summer, and her crush,
Jeff is most definitely taking notice of her.
Everything is going beautifully.
Until Ava starts to grow feathers—all over her
shoulders, arms, and back.
Horrified, mortified, and clad in a hoodie,
she hides out in her bedroom missing her dead
mother and worrying about the summer,
and the rest of her freakish life…
Carolyn Turgeon has a gift for imagining magical
worlds. In Ava’s case, this other-worldly place
belongs to the Swan Maidens, one of whom is Ava’s mother.
Ava goes back and forth between middle school
and this magical realm taking the reader
along for an exhilarating, extraordinary ride.

~Sunday Poem

 

Heart of my heart, the world is young;
   Love lies hidden in every rose!
Every song that the skylark sung
   Once, we thought, must come to a close:

Now we know the spirit of song,
   Song that is merged in the chant of the whole,
Hand in hand as we wander along,
   What should we doubt of the years that roll?

-from “Unity” by Alfred Noyes
Art (unknown to me)
found HERE!

The monument to
the brothers William and Jacob Grimm, 
in Kassel court.

The Nightingale” by Elisabeth Alba

How Arthur drew his sword Excalibur for the first time.

Arthur Rackham, frontispiece from
The romance of King Arthur, abridged from
Mallory’s Morte d’Arthur by Alfred W. Pollard,
New York, 1920.

(Source: archive.org)

~Vintage Books

Cover illustration by Raymond de La Nézière
for Peau d’Âne [Donkeyskin],
by Charles Perrault, circa 1932
~READ THE STORY HERE~

The Queen Bee
story told by The Brothers Grimm
READ HERE
Art  by Mervyn Peake

Alvida’s Window for The Magician’s Cape
from Swedish Fairy Tales
by John Bauer.
[Swedish painter and illustrator, 1882-1918]

Alvida did not touch any of the fruit herself.
She let it fall, 
piece by piece,
and tired and thirsty travelers came along, 
picked up a pear or an apple,
and blessed the gift.

~Sunday Poem

.
Despite the enormous evening sky 
spreading over most of the canvas, 
its moon no more 
than a tarnished coin, dull and flat, 
in a devalued currency; 

despite the trees, so dark themselves, 
stretching upward like supplicants, 
utterly leafless; despite what could be 
a face, rinsed of feeling, aimed 
in their direction, 

the two small figures 
at the bottom of this picture glow 
bravely in their carnival clothes, 
as if the whole darkening world 
were dimming its lights for a party.

by Linda Pastan, “Carnival Evening”

Art by Henry Rousseau,
Carnival Evening, 1886, oil on canvas.

~Vintage Book!

 
The "Golliwogg" (later "Golliwog", "golly doll")
was a character in children's books in
the late 19th century and depicted as a type of rag doll.
It was reproduced, both by commercial and
hobby toy-makers as a children's toy called
the "golliwog", and had great popularity in
North America, the United Kingdom, Europe
and Australia, into the 1960s.
The doll has black skin, eyes rimmed in white,
clown lips, and frizzy hair, and it has been described
as "the least known of the major anti-Black caricatures
in the United States".
While home-made golliwogs were sometimes female,
the golliwog was generally male.
For this reason, in the period following
World War II, the golliwog was seen, along with
the teddy bear, as a suitable soft toy for a young boy.

READ MORE...
~AND HERE~

.
The little mermaid sighed, and looked sorrowfully
at her fish’s tail. “I know what you want,” said the sea witch;
“It is very stupid of you, but you shall have your way,
and it will bring you to sorrow, my pretty princess.” 
.
This is an Illustration based on the Fairy Tale
“The Little Mermaid” in her own vision
The original story is by Hans Christian Anderson.

Art and story by JBSdesigns

The Coming of Spring by E.A. Hornel, 1899
(via)

SOURCE

“Violette consented willingly to pass the night in the forest”

Illustration by Virginia Frances Sterrett,
from Old French Fairy Tales
by Comtesse de Segur, 1920

Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out.

by Hugh Thomson
from The merry wives of Windsor,
by William Shakespeare, New York, 1910.

(Source: archive.org)

A 1910 theater production of Alice in Wonderland
from LIFE

~Gollum’s Song

.
Where once was light
Now darkness falls
Where once was love
Love is no more
Don’t say goodbye
Don’t say I didn’t try
.
These tears we cry
Are falling rain
For all the lies you told us
The hurt, the blame!
And we will weep to be so alone
We are lost
We can never go home.
.
So in the end
I’ll be what I will be
No loyal friend
Was ever there for me.
Now we say goodbye
We say you didn’t try.

These tears you cry
Have come too late
Take back the lies
The hurt, the blame!.

And you will weep
When you face the end alone
You are lost
You can never go home
You are lost
You can never go home

.
-Gollum’s Song by Emiliana Torrini

A boy sits amid the ruins of a London bookshop
following an air raid on October 8, 1940

Source

  
At the end of a busy day, isn't it great to be home?
I can't think of any place I'd rather be.

HAVE A VERY NICE WEEKEND!!!

by Mother Goose
Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for my master,
One for my dame,
And one for the little boy
That lives in our lane.

Source picture

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.

by Arnold Lobel

The Spectacle Seller, Adrian van Ostade
(1610-1685)

More images of spectacle peddlers
at Antique Spectacles

~Sunday Poem

Love happened at last,
And we entered God’s paradise,
Sliding
Under the skin of the water
Like fish.
.
We saw the precious pearls of the sea
And were amazed.
.
Love happened at last
Without intimidation…with symmetry of wish.
So I gave…and you gave
And we were fair.
.
It happened with marvelous ease
Like writing with jasmine water,
.
Like a spring flowing
from the ground.

by Pablo Neruda
Art by Albert Edelfelt

Update
Thanks Clarissa Rodriguez
for correcting me
the Poem is indeed by Nizar Qabbani
but
Pablo Neruda has wrote many poems as well
check it out here ;o)
www.poemhunter.com/

Dr. Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
Writer of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries,
on a tandem with his wife.
Original Artist: By Elliott & Fry.
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).
Circa 1895

A maiden in contemplation 1898
by Gaston La Touche
(1854 - 1913)

The old woman went out to ask the moon
the way to Soria Maria’s castle.

Erik Werenskiold,
from Fairy tales from the far North,
by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, London, 1897.
Via archive.org.

Entertainment and Music For You
...Enjoy!…

Fantasia Fairies
- Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

“Never say goodbye,
because good bye means going away,
and going away means forgetting.”

~Peter Pan
Source

“Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things
there are to find out about?
It just makes me feel glad to be alive—
it’s such an interesting world.
It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we know
all about everything, would it?
There’d be no scope for imagination then,
would there?”

-Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Art by Claire Keanes

~Sunday Poem..

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust, 
equally the beech, the oaks,
and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come 
into the world to do this,
to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

by Mary Oliver,
“When I Am Among the Trees”
Art by William  M. Timlin

BEAUTIFUL PORTAL!
Source

The girl and her dolls, teddy bear,
and pets are very deep in thought and are
putting their best efforts into good penmanship.

Illustration for The Christmas Letter circa 1905-07
by Wuanita Smith, American, 1866–1959.
Black chalk, red and black wash on illustration board.

Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
Source

~Vintage Book..

Edmund Dulac ~ Book Cover ~
Fairies I Have Met by Mrs. (Maud Margaret)
Rodolph Stawell ~ 1910