‘Folk Tales of Bengal’ is a wonderful collection of classic stories, containing thirty-two colour illustrations, by Warwick Goble. The narratives were collated by the Reverend Lal Behari Day (1824 – 1892); a Bengali Indian journalist, who converted to Christianity, and became a Christian missionary himself. He was a well-respected folklorist, and immersed himself in Bengali culture. The twenty-two stories of ‘Folk Tales of Bengal’ include: ‘The Indignant Brahman’, ‘The Evil-Eye of Sani’, ‘The Story of Swet-Basanta’, ‘A Ghostly Wife’, ‘The Origin of Rubies’, ‘The Match-Making Jackal’, and many more. Warwick Goble (1862 – 1943) was an illustrator of children’s books, who specialised in Japanese and Indian themes. The son of a commercial traveller, he was educated at the Westminster School of art, and specialised in chromolithographic printing. His work is delicate in its colouring, and masterful in its presentation of line and form. Some of Goble’s best known works include illustrations for Charles Kingsley’s ‘The Water Babies’, Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’, and H. G. Wells’s ‘The War of the Worlds’. Pook Press celebrates the great ‘Golden Age of Illustration‘ in children’s literature – a period of unparalleled excellence in book illustration. We publish rare and vintage Golden Age illustrated books, in high-quality colour editions, so that the masterful artwork and story-telling can continue to delight both young and old.
