A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden
A delightful children’s book that takes us back to an older rhythm of life, strolling through an English garden.
As another jewel in our illustrated literature chest comes Walter Crane’s (1845-1915) book A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden, made up of drawings and verse, which will delight our free time and fill us with delight, as only children’s literature can do.
Walter Crane is considered as the most prolific and influential children’s author of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the most important contributors to English Children’s Literature, especially illustrated works for young children. This book is one of the most colorful early examples of the “child in a garden” theme that would popularly take over children’s literature for decades.
Both sweet and ingenious (in moments almost perverse) this book and its beautiful illustrations have the capacity to change the rhythm of our workaday thoughts. The music in its pages stirs a breath of fresh air in its readers, provoking a sort of solitary peace. An afternoon with this book could even alter the way we experience time, teaching us to slow down, stop looking only towards the future and focus on the present, on this fantasy of a flowering garden.
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