Charles Robinson, Illustrator

Puss in Boots, illustrated by Charles Robinson Puss in Boots is a classic fairy tale written at the end of the 17th century by Charles Perrault, with origins in Basile's (Cagliuso / Gagliuso) and Straparola's (Constantino Fortunato) works from the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. We can trace it to Girolamo Morlini and even further but we'll rather focus on this version, published in The Big Book of Fairy Tales in 1911. The story starts like many other fairy tales. Father dies and his three children are facing a life-changing situation. In this case, we are dealing with a dead miller who had three sons. The eldest inherited a mill, the middle son had got a donkey, and the youngest a cat. While the first two boys possess something obviously useful to make a living, the youngest doesn't know what to do with the cat. He even thinks it would be best to skin it and use its fur for a pair of gloves or something. At that moment the first enchanting moment happens an...

Sleeping Beauty by Charles Robinson Sleeping Beauty or Briar Rose is a classic fairy tale known in several versions. This one belongs to the brothers Grimm with one exception - the king and the queen left the castle after their princess fell asleep. Charles Robinson for some reason didn't illustrate the grand finale with the prince, so the story, if we confine ourselves just to pictures, ends with everybody asleep. The frontispiece of the story belongs to The Big Book of Fairy Tales, published by Blackie & Son, London in 1911, and portrays the aforementioned scene where the royal couple leaves the sleepy castle. This scene comes from older versions, where the sleeping princess was left in the castle, but in those versions, everybody left. She was alone and unprotected (no thorns around her home either). Briar Rose is an alternative title, given by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. This title is very rarely used in editions published after WW2. The wicked fairy is used for the de...

Rumpelstiltskin with illustrations by Charles Robinson Rumpelstiltskin is an old fairy tale from the Grimm brothers' collection. The same story pattern can be found virtually all over the world, with different names for the title character or even focusing on the other side of the conflict. Charles Robinson created a few illustrations for The Big Book of Fairy Tales edited by Walter Jerrold and published by Blackie & Son in 1911. We'll go through the story with some help of his beautiful black and white pictures.   The story starts with the king stopping by the miller. The miller is very proud of this unsuspected visit and starts bragging. It is not an everyday occasion to have so important visitor. So he babbles and babbles and praises everything from his life. Especially his daughter. She is not only beautiful but very skillful as well. His intentions are obvious. He is trying to present the king with the possibility of having his daughter for his wife. That would be some...

The Three Bears, illustrated by Charles Robinson Three Bears is today more known as Goldilocks and Three Bears or simply Goldilocks. This version is older. We'll see why Goldilock is omitted from the title and what else is different from the contemporary variation of the same tale. First of all - this is not a fairy tale because it doesn't possess the crucial elements of the genre, especially the transformation of one or more main characters. It's a story about an intrusion into one's home without fatal consequences. We could classify it as a cautionary tale, but the publisher included it in the book with fairy tales (not the first and not the last such example), so here it is. Charles Robinson made a decorative capital letter for the beginning of the story. The next picture is somehow mysterious. We were already informed about the bear's home, where food was too hot to eat, so they left the house and went for a walk. But in the meantime, somebody comes by....

Goose Girl, ilustrated by Charles Robinson Goose Girl is a fairy tale written by the brothers Grimm. It deals with all the major questions and themes from their collection: social status, trickery, the importance of a given word, marriage, and rigorous punishment. We'll summarize the story with the help of Charles Robinson's illustrations from the book The Big Book of Fairy Tales. As with all other fairy tales in this book, it starts with a typical decorative letter. Once upon a time, there was a princess whose father died. Her mother arranged a marriage to her daughter with a prince from another kingdom. The princess has to leave and only one servant (a waiting maid, actually) comes with her. She also gave her a handkerchief with three drops of her blood and a talking horse. Both had the power to remind the princess of her royal origin but she was so inexperienced she didn't really understand it. After some time, the princess became thirsty. She asked her companio...