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    The Sleeping Beauty
    The Sleeping Beauty
    The Sleeping Beauty
    Ebook101 pages52 minutes

    The Sleeping Beauty

    By C. S. (Charles Seddon) Evans and Arthur Rackham

    4/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 1920
    The Sleeping Beauty

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    4/5

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    • 5/5
      The tale of the sleeping princess awoken by her handsome prince is a well known one. The precious child long sought after by a prosperous King and Queen is finally delivered to the great joy and delight of the kingdom. However disaster strikes when an offended fairy, not invited to the christening through her own reclusiveness that caused others to forget her existence, proceeds to curse the child to death on her fifteenth birthday. Luckily another fairy was able to alter the curse so that not death but sleep would befall the princess. And so a hundred years later the sleeping princess was awoken by her prince and they all lived happily ever after.The Sleeping Beauty is a classic story for so many reasons; it is a tale of caution, to not offend powerful fairies or go wandering into locked towers. But more than this it demonstrates that you cannot run from your fears but must face the inevitable, come what may. A story that speaks to the romantic in all of us, that true love is worth waiting for, even if it takes a hundred years. Ultimately, though, it is about the curse of ignorance and the power of knowledge, for if someone had thought to tell the poor girl of her curse she might not have been so keen to use a spinning wheel. A much beloved classic here retold that should be reread.
    • 4/5
      A beautiful, cleverly written version of this story from 1920. The best part are Arthur Rackham's illustrations, done in the silhouette style; they are fascinatingly detailed and an absolute delight.

    Book preview

    The Sleeping Beauty - C. S. (Charles Seddon) Evans

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sleeping Beauty, by C. S. Evans

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: The Sleeping Beauty

    Author: C. S. Evans

    Illustrator: Arthur Rackham

    Release Date: May 12, 2008 [EBook #25451]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLEEPING BEAUTY ***

    Produced by Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh, Emmy and the Online

    Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

    THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

    ———————————————

    BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BY

    ARTHUR RACKHAM

    ———————————————

    LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 1920.

    THE

    SLEEPING BEAUTY

    CHAPTER I

    ONCE upon a time there were a King and a Queen who were very unhappy because they had no children. Everything else that the heart could wish for was theirs. They were rich; they lived in a wonderful palace full of the costliest treasures; their kingdom was at peace, and their people were prosperous. Yet none of these things contented them, because they wanted a little child of their own to love and to care for, and though they had been married several years, no child had come to them.

    Every day the King would look at the Queen and say: Ah, if we only had a little child, and the Queen would look at the King and sigh, and they were both very miserable about it. Then they would put on their golden crowns and sit side by side on their thrones, while lords and ladies and ambassadors from other lands came to pay them homage, and they had to smile with their lips for the sake of politeness, but there was no joy in their hearts. And that is one of the greatest disadvantages of being a King or a Queen, that one has always to hide one's feelings.

    Now it happened one day that the Queen went to her bath, and having dismissed her ladies, she descended the marble steps into the water and began idly to play with some wild rose-petals which had fallen into the water. All of a sudden she heard a croaking voice that said: O Queen, be cheerful, for the dearest wish of your heart will be granted you.

    Who is that? cried the Queen, a little frightened, for she could see nobody.

    Look behind you, croaked the voice, and do not be afraid, for I come only to bear you good tidings.

    So the Queen looked behind her, and there was a great frog who looked at her with its big round eyes.

    Now the Queen was afraid of frogs, because they are cold and clammy, but she

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