Weekly Eldritch: Arthur Szyk

Andersen’s Fairy Tales (1945) was one book we owned that really creeped me out as a child, partly because of the morose stories, but mostly because of the illustrations by Arthur Szyk (1894-1951).

2801Even the pictures of the good and beautiful characters made me uneasy.

king-queen-of-roses d24340d173a43d7da6657a802f4e853bProbably because of the doleful expressions.

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I’ve saved the best for last. Here are the illustrations I found particularly disturbing:

b-szyk1 andersenSpidersAaaah! This is what happens to little girls who step on a loaf of bread in order to keep their shoes clean! (Yes, seriously. Hans Christian Andersen was grimmer than the Grimms!)

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