Browse Items (16 total)

The frontispiece (illustration before the title page) of the book depicts the protagonist, a girl named Snowflower, seated in her magical chair. She grips one of its arms with both hands and looks past the viewer to the right. While we do not see the…

Woodwender and Loveleaves are the children of two kind kings and promised to marry each other in “The Lords of the White and Grey Castles.” When their fathers go missing, their wicked stewards force the children to herd swine and sleep on straw. When…

Like 19th century stories with blind characters, Granny’s Wonderful Chair deals with the significance of music. In "The Greedy Shepherd," brother shepherds Clutch and Kind traverse the mountains in search of their lost flock. Here, Pyle illustrates…

In “The Story of Childe Charity,” the titular character is a young orphan in the care of her greedy aunt and uncle. Pyle’s ink illustration depicts her in her misfortune, a wistful look on her face as she sits on a stool and gazes at what could be…

In the chair’s story “Sour and Civil,” a young fisherman named Civil finds himself whisked down into the world of merpeople. This piece illustrates the fear and wonder of this moment; once again, physicality is present in the way Civil grips the boat…

Pyle displays Browne’s themes of wealth and poverty in her depiction of the mer-king’s treasures. With arms outstretched, the mer-king shows off his jewel-encrusted necklace, long robe, and decorated vases. Civil, on the other hand, is partially…

The themes of sacrifice, perseverance, and finding worth in what is broken shine through in “The Story of Merrymind.” One of thirteen children, Merrymind is discouraged that the fiddle he spent his allowance on cannot be mended with ordinary…

This highlight of Merrymind’s broken fiddle is a curious thing to include at the chapter’s conclusion. After Merrymind meets the night-spinners and plays music which frees an entire community from slavish work, Browne writes that “man, woman, and…

Frances Browne (1816-1879) was a writer and poet from Donegal, Ireland. At the age of 18 months, she contracted smallpox and became blind—which is striking given the amount of visual imagery she includes in her writing. Her brothers and sisters read…

Illustrator Katharine Pyle (1863-1938) was the sister of lauded artist Howard Pyle. She studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women and the New York Art Students’ League. The Counterpane Fairy was the first success of her career, in which…