Book Review: Arabian Nights Illustrated

ARABIAN NIGHTS ILLUSTRATED 1800-1950: BOOKS FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF ILLUSTRATION by Albert Seligman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed reading Arabian Nights Illustrated! Of course the illustrations are mesmerizing, but I have to tell you about the excellent mini-biographies that taught me so much about the artists who created the illustrations. I now have a better grasp on the who-what-when-wheres of notable art movements of the past, and their participants.

I also learned quite a few fascinating details about the processes used to print color illustrations in books. What we take for granted now wasn’t always so easy. For instance, in the mid 1800’s an engraver named Edmund Evans used a technique called “chromoxylography”. To quote from the book, “Up to 10 different plates were used to provide the colors and shading required to reproduce a watercolor painting as a wood engraving”.

Thomas McIlvaine, a prolific artist who created many Arabian Nights illustrations, also did the illustrations for Robert Bulwer-Lytton’s novel, Lucile. If the name Bulwer-Lytton sounds familiar to you, it’s because Robert was the son of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Edward is famous for a burst of terrible writing at the start of his 1830 novel, Paul Clifford: “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” Whew. There’s an annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest if you care to try your hand at writing an atrocious opening sentence for a novel. The official site for that is The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

But I digress. On purpose. Digression is sometimes the route to treasure. In this book you’ll find plenty of secondary information, like that reference to Bulwer-Lytton, which can be interesting to follow up on. I’ll leave it to you to marvel at the fate of Louis Rhead and what it has to do with a 30 pound snapping turtle, or the tragedy of the Detmold brother’s lives.

I hope you take this opportunity to revisit some of the many variations on the Arabian Nights stories, and that you have fun learning more about the technology, trends, and people who made 1800-1950 such a fascinating time in art history.

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