Warwick Goble – Illustrations for Stories from the Pentamerone 1911

Warwick Goble (1862 – 1943) was an illustrator of children’s books. He specialized in Japanese and Indian themes.

In 1909, he became resident gift book illustrator for MacMillan and produced illustrations for The Water Babies, Green Willow and Other Japanese Fairy Tales, The Complete Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Stories from the Pentamerone, Folk Tales of Bengal, The Fairy Book, The Book of Fairy Poetry and many other books.

During World War I, he was employed in the drawing office of Woolrich Arsenal, and volunteered for service with the Red Cross in France. He worked occasionally for New York MacMillan, and produced editions of Treasure Island and Kidnapped. Warwick Goble gradually gave up illustration to pursue sculling, cycling, and travelling. He died in his Surrey home in 1943.

The Pentamerone (Neapolitan subtitle: Lo cunto de li cunti, “The Tale of Tales”) is a seventeenth-century fairy tale collection by Italian poet and courtier Giambattista Basile.

The stories in the Pentamerone were collected by Basile and published posthumously in two volumes by his sister Adriana in Naples, Italy, in 1634 and 1636 under the pseudonym Gian Alesio Abbatutis. These stories were later adapted by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, the latter making extensive, acknowledged use of Basile’s collection. Examples of this are versions of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, and Hansel and Gretel.

Presented here is The Stories from the Pentamerone, First edition, published by Macmillan. London, 1911. Not one of Warwick Goble’s best, but delightful nonetheless.

For a list of illustrations by Warwick Goble available on our site. Please visit our Warwick Goble Illustrated Books Art Gallery.

Art Gallery: Warwick Goble – Stories from the Pentamerone 1911