Fantasy Fouqué, Fr. de la Motte: Undine (Engl. trans, illus). v1. 30 Aug 2016

[GrannyGrump]

UNDINE By Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (1777–1843)
Translated from the German by William L. Courtney (1850–1928)
Illustrated by Arthur Rackham (1867–1939)

Undine was first published in 1811. This translation was first published in 1909.
The original German text of the story is in the public domain worldwide because the author died more than 100 years ago, and it was published before 1923.
This translation and the illustrations are in the public domain in countries where copyright is “Life+70” or less, and in the USA.

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Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqué was a German writer of the romantic style, chiefly centered on medieval chivalry and northern mythology. He was a prolific writer, creating novels, plays, epics, and short stories. But “Undine” is the work by which Fouqué's memory still lives today.
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This fairytale novella tells how Undine, a water spirit, marries a knight named Huldebrand in order to acquire a soul. The story is descended from Melusine, the French folk-tale of a water-sprite who marries a knight on condition that he shall never see her on Saturdays, when she resumes her mermaid shape. “Undine” has inspired dozens of adaptations, for fine art, ballet, opera, film, poetry, and further novels.

This edition features Arthur Rackham’s beautifully intricate color illustrations, which will reward the diligent viewer with unexpected glimpses of sprites and gnomes and goblins, lurking in the leaves and shadows and frothy waves.

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“Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale ... of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful.” (George MacDonald, The Fantastic Imagination)

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Text and images were obtained from archive.org. OCR errors were corrected, punctuation formatted. Chapter heads are cross-linked to Table of Contents; the List of Illustrations provides links to full-page color images.

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