Title: GEORGE CRUIKSHANK’S FAIRY LIBRARY. | HOP-O’-MY THUMB. | JACK AND THE BEAN-STALK. | CINDERELLA. | PUSS IN BOOTS. | [DEVICE] | LONDON: | GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

Pagination: [2] – blanks, [2] – first half-title with blank verso, [i-ii] – second half-title with blank verso, [2] – blank / frontispiece, [iii-viii] title, colophon, editor’s note, list of illustrations, [2] –  title with blank verso, [1] 2-101 [3] – blank; 24 plates with protective tissue. Colophon: This edition is limited to 500 copies, with India paper impressions. The former editions have been from lithographic transfers. The plates were retouched under Mr. Cruikshank’s direction shortly before his death, and have not been used since until now.

Binding: 4to, 22.2 x 17.5 cm, hardcover; 3/4 black calf ruled in gilt, brown calf spine with raised bands decorated in gilt, with gilt title lettering. Green marbled boards and end-papers. Abel E. Berland’s bookplate pasted to front pastedown. Professionally rebound, re-backed with the original spine laid down, corners bumped.

Catalogue Raisonné: Not in Alan M. Cohen’s.

As writes the British Library: “George Cruikshank’s […]  illustrations for the first English translation of Grimm’s Fairy Tales were praised widely, but his own rewriting of fairytales was criticised, most prominently by Charles Dickens. This was not due to the quality of the illustrations, but because, in line with his temperance beliefs, Cruikshank rewrote aspects of the fairytales to warn the reader against the evils of alcohol. Thus, for instance, the preparations for Cinderella’s marriage include the court throwing all alcohol in the palace on a bonfire; and in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, the giant is an alcoholic. Dickens, a friend of Cruikshank, was outraged at what he considered to be a betrayal of the essence of fairytales and, in protest, he published an essay in his weekly magazine Household Words entitled ‘Frauds on the Fairies’ in protest (1853).”