Tales from Shakspeare

London: Constable & Company, 1921. Cloth. Very Good. 8" by 5.5". Robert Anning Bell. An illustrated later impression of Charles and Mary Lamb's famous collection of Shakespearian tales for children. Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was an essayist and poet, who along with his sister Mary Lamb (1764-1847) composed this work, a children's collection of the works of William Shakespeare. He was good friends with a number of important and prolific literary figures, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth and Robert Southey, and corresponded with them. Both he and his sister suffered bouts of mental illness; in his sister's case, a mental breakdown resulted in her murdering their mother with a kitchen knife, and after this, she spent the majority of the remainder of her life in mental institutions.Contains tales including 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'The Merchant of Venice', 'Hamlet', 'Twelfth Night', 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Hamlet', as well as many others.Illustrated with fifteen plates by Robert Anning Bell. Collated, complete.With an introductory preface by Andrew Lang, an extremely prolific writer, literary critic and novelist remembered for his compilation of folk and fairy tales, including the Langs' Fairy Books. He also translated a number of classical works and was a prolific and important anthropologist besides his writings for children.An illustrated later impression of an important Victorian children's work. In the publisher's original full cloth binding. Externally generally smart; the spine is a little discoloured, with bumping to the extremities. Ownership stamp to the front endpaper. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean. Very Good