In Search of Haunting Fairytale book

[ladypyramidhead]

When I was a child, I had this fairytale book (it had The Little Mermaid in it at least) and it's cover and illustrations were so
beautiful and have forever influenced me. The pictures were extremely frightening and Gothic, but very, very sad and powerful.

Cover Description:
The cover was smooth magenta and had a picture on the front in semi-oval of a garden full of faeries.
Both the title, and the scroll work around the picture were in a shiny metallic gold.
The book was hardcover and was about an inch (?) thick.

If anyone could help me, I would be so very grateful!

Thank you.​

 

[sparkchaser]

The Little Mermaid story is in Grimm's Fairy Tales. There are countless editions and cover variations of that book. I'd look for an edition that isn't geared towards small children because the stories will be darker.

 

[PipPirrip]

Nah, I think "The Little Mermaid" was Anderson not Grimm.

But there are as many editions of him as there are of Grimm's Fairy tales.

My Folio Soc edition sounds a little like what you are describing, but that is a burgundy red rather than magenta.

 

[sparkchaser]

You're right Pip.

Like Pip said, Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales might be the book you are looking for.

 

[ladypyramidhead]

Thank you very much for your suggestions, but I still can't find it. That book looked very similar, though.


Maybe this will help:

It's a thin book (maybe only a couple centimeters), and the outside is very smooth. Inside the oval, on the cover was a classical painting of fairies in a garden similar to this image...
www . wilsonsalmanac . com/ images1/ midsummer _ fairies_sm . jpg
(without spaces)

But the inside illustrations... they looked like Tim Burton mixed with Yoshitaka Amano, and were drawn in pencil.

As for the year of the book, well, I don't remember seeing it after 1994.


I'll continue to look for it on Books-A-Million.