The End of Elfintown

[iv], 78pp. Tan cloth boards, elaborately decorated in Art Nouveau style to a design by Laurence Housman, gilt lettering and all edges gilt. Tissue-guarded title page and 8 further full page plate illustrations by Housman, together with numerous line drawings in text. Overall this appears a very goo copy with gentle edge wear to covers, a previous owner’s bookplate on the front paste down and faint, occasional spotting to prelims only. However, a small portion of the lower leading corner has broken off, slightly affecting the next two leaves as well. A shame for what is otherwise a bright and gleaming copy of this sort after Victorian fairy story. Irish author Barlow builds on the popularity of fairy stories in this fantasy fable. She was close friends with fellow Irish poets Katherine Tynan and William Butler Yeats, and was one of the first women to receive an academic distinction from the University of Dublin.

Housman, Laurence

barlow, victorian fiction, fairy stories, irish writing, housman, Illustrated Books, plate illustrations, yeats, tynan, elfintown, elfin town