Cover of a vibrant pink leatherbound book with raised embossing and a white oval in the center with an illustration of birds and French text that reads: Les Oiseaux.

Musée des dames et des demoiselles

Historic painting of Arthur Rackham's cover design for Cinderella, featuring silhouettes of a fairy godmother waving a wand and a girl in rags alongside a pumpkin, rats, and lizards.

Arthur Rackham’s original illustration for Cinderella

An illustration depicting a two-headed giant deviously entering the darkened room of a sleeping child through a wooden door. A second child hides behind the curtain of the sleeping child

Arthur Rackham (1867–1939)
“At the dead time of the night in came the Welsh giant,” illustration for “Jack the Giant-Killer” in The Allies’ Fairy Book
Pen and ink with watercolor, 1916
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Spencer Collection

“At the dead time of the night in came the Welsh giant,” illustration for “Jack the Giant-Killer” in The Allies’ Fairy Book

The two-headed giant, having been falsely hospitable to the lost and travel-weary Jack, sneaks into the bedroom to club his guest to death while he sleeps. Fortunately, Jack had overheard his host’s malicious plans and placed a log in the bed as a dummy. Later, Jack tricks the giant into killing himself.

A particularly gory example from an often violent genre, “Jack the Giant-Killer” was the English selection for The Allies’ Fairy Book, a 1916 anthology of fairy tales from the nations that comprised the Allies in World War I. The United States had yet to enter the war and is therefore omitted from the book; Russia, yet to withdraw, is included.

Holding Division: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Spencer …

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