The King Of The Golden River

Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

A stunning treasury of 86 full-page plates span the famed English artist's career, from Rip Van Winkle (1905) to masterworks such as Undine, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Wind in the Willows (1939).

We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive classic literature collection. This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts, We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. Also in books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy. We use state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."The King of the Golden River" is a delightful fairy tale told with all Ruskin's charm of style, his appreciation of mountain scenery, and with his usual insistence upon drawing a moral. None the less, it is quite unlike his other writings.All his life long his pen was busy interpreting nature and pictures and architecture, or persuading to better views those whom he believed to be in error, or arousing, with the white heat of a prophet's zeal, those whom he knew to be unawakened. There is indeed a good deal of the prophet about John Ruskin. Though essentially an interpreter with a singularly fine appreciation of beauty, no man of the nineteenth century felt more keenly that he had a mission, and none was more loyal to what he believed that mission to be.

Stories that have delighted children and fascinated adults for over a century are the heritage of Hans Christian Andersen. This collection has been selected and translated with the growing audience of adults--both students and general readers--in mind, and displays the full range of Andersen’s authorship, from parable to science fiction. In this fresh, contemporary translation Rossel and Conroy have endeavored to “preserve for the English-speaking audience the engaging duplicity of Andersen’s style, the tension of play between his sympathetic conversational tone and his use of the studied effect.” This is a tension between the simplicity of stories intended to be read aloud to children ad the subtlety of the allegory skillfully woven into each for the adults who would be listening and “must have something to think about,” as Andersen said. The introductions provide an overview of Andersen’s life and struggle to become an author, as well as an analysis of his contributions as an artist and storyteller. Each story has also been provided with an endnote giving publication dates, information about the genesis of the tale, and relevant comments by Andersen and other. Readers who remember with nostalgia such tales as “The Ugly Duckling” and “The Little Match Girl” may be surprised to find the biting satire in many of the stories, such as “The Nightingale” and “The Gardener and the Lord and Lady,” the revealing self-portraits of the author in “The Sweethearts,” “The Butterfly,” and “The Shadow,” the mysticism of “The story of a Mother” and “The Bell” the prophetic quality of “In a Thousand Years Time,” and the complexity and charm of “the Snow Queen.” The book contains the drawings of Vilhelm Pedersen and Lorenz Frolich that originally appeared in the first illustrated Danish editions of Andersen’s tales and stories.

Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin, first published in 1896, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.

"The King of the Golden River" is a delightful fairy tale told with all Ruskin's charm of style, his appreciation of mountain scenery, and with his usual insistence upon drawing a moral. None the less, it is quite unlike his other writings. All his life long his pen was busy interpreting nature and pictures and architecture, or persuading to better views those whom he believed to be in error, or arousing, with the white heat of a prophet's zeal, those whom he knew to be unawakened. There is indeed a good deal of the prophet about John Ruskin. Though essentially an interpreter with a singularly fine appreciation of beauty, no man of the nineteenth century felt more keenly that he had a mission, and none was more loyal to what he believed that mission to be. While still in college, what seemed a chance incident gave occasion and direction to this mission. A certain English reviewer had ridiculed the work of the artist Turner. Now Ruskin held Turner to be the greatest landscape painter the world had seen, and he immediately wrote a notable article in his defense. Slowly this article grew into a pamphlet, and the pamphlet into a book, the first volume of "Modern Painters." The young man awoke to find himself famous. In the next few years four more volumes were added to "Modern Painters," and the other notable series upon art, "The Stones of Venice" and "The Seven Lamps of Architecture," were sent forth. Then, in 1860, when Ruskin was about forty years old, there came a great change. His heaven-born genius for making the appreciation of beauty a common possession was deflected from its true field. He had been asking himself what are the conditions that produce great art, and the answer he found declared that art cannot be separated from life, nor life from industry and industrial conditions. A civilization founded upon unrestricted competition therefore seemed to him necessarily feeble in appreciation of the beautiful, and unequal to its creation. In this way loyalty to his mission bred apparent disloyalty. Delightful discourses upon art gave way to fervid pleas for humanity. For the rest of his life he became a very earnest, if not always very wise, social reformer and a passionate pleader for what he believed to be true economic ideals. There is nothing of all this in "The King of the Golden River." Unlike his other works, it was written merely to entertain. Scarcely that, since it was not written for publication at all, but to meet a challenge set him by a young girl. The circumstance is interesting. After taking his degree at Oxford, Ruskin was threatened with consumption and hurried away from the chill and damp of England to the south of Europe. After two years of fruitful travel and study he came back improved in health but not strong, and often depressed in spirit. It was at this time that the Guys, Scotch friends of his father and mother, came for a visit to his home near London, and with them their little daughter Euphemia. The coming of this beautiful, vivacious, light-hearted child opened a new chapter in Ruskin's life. Though but twelve years old, she sought to enliven the melancholy student, absorbed in art and geology, and bade him leave these and write for her a fairy tale. He accepted, and after but two sittings, presented her with this charming story. The incident proved to have awakened in him a greater interest than at first appeared, for a few years later "Effie" Grey became John Ruskin's wife. Meantime she had given the manuscript to a friend. Nine years after it was written, this friend, with John Ruskin's permission, gave the story to the world. It was published in London in 1851, with illustrations by the celebrated Richard Doyle, and at once became a favorite. Three editions were printed the first year, and soon it had found its way into German, Italian, and Welsh. Since then countless children have had cause to be grateful for the young girl's challenge that won the story of Gluck's golden mug and the highly satisfactory handling of the Black Brothers by Southwest Wind, Esquire. For this edition new drawings have been prepared by Mr. Hiram P. Barnes. They very successfully preserve the spirit of Doyle's illustrations, which unfortunately are not technically suitable for reproduction here. In the original manuscript there was an epilogue bearing the heading "Charitie"—a morning hymn of Treasure Valley, whither Gluck had returned to dwell, and where the inheritance lost by cruelty was regained by love: The beams of morning are renewed The valley laughs their light to see And earth is bright with gratitude And heaven with charitie. R.H. COE