"East of the Sun and West of the Moon" by Kay Nielsen

Ariel Cambronero: This edition is amazingly beautiful: the artwork is incredible and very well detailed. Kielsen is an amazing artist and I'm so grateful to have this book in my hands.

United States on Jul 28, 2023

Victória: Adorei, não é fácil encontrar um livro do Kay Nielsen, ainda mais, tão lindo. Gostei do tamanho, folhas e nem tem o que falar das ilustrações lindas. E os contos, sou super fã!!

Brazil on Feb 26, 2023

Pa Hancock: This is probably the most beautiful book I’ve ever come across. I bought it because I remembered having a copy of East of the Sun and West of the Moon as a student, which got lost, and I wanted to see if the illustrations were as beautiful as I remembered them. This edition is the way to have that confirmed, and then some. The quality of reproduction is the best, and the way some of the colour illustrations are produced at scale over a double page is breathtaking. The fonts used, the decorative B&W panelling on the text pages – it’s all sumptuous. Kay Nielsen was such a visionary. I realise that many prominent artistic figures who came much later than him owe a lot to his vision – David Bowie to give just one example.

United Kingdom on Jan 25, 2023

Erica Fontes: Livro alucinantemente lindo e que contém informações importantes de um artista que foi e é referência nas artes visuais, tendo contribuído inclusive com obras da Disney ("Fantasia", por exemplo).

Brazil on Dec 29, 2022

World Leader PretendWorld Leader Pretend: Me encantan los libros de "fairy tales", de folclore de distintos lugares... ya sea grecolatino, nórdico, eslavo... y además me encantan los buenos ilustradores seminales, los de hace casi 100 años, como Kay Nielsen.. Hay joyitas de libros por ahí que uno debe buscar para después deleitarse. Aunque también es cierto, que apostar por un libro de Taschen es como apostar por una serie de HBO, es decir, casi seguro que aciertas. Y en este caso, he acertado claro. Ya conocía el título y las ilustraciones ,por la edición de Calla de 2008. Pero ésta es mejor desde mi humilde punto de vista, pues para empezar, el libro es más grande y luego, tiene más ilustraciones, aunque la letra es más pequeña.. También es más barato, pues el de Calla creo que me costó unos 40 €.. Lo dicho, joyita para deleitarnos con los 15 cuentos, a destacar el que da titulo al libro claro..

Espero que haya sido util mi valoración

Spain on Oct 21, 2022

Rotkappchen31Rotkappchen31: I collect fairy tale books of specific children's book illustrators including Kay Nielsen and have had various prints of this book over the years, replacing them with better versions when possible. As others helpfully posted, this version seems to have the full complement of black and white drawings and color plates for the stories and the image quality is excellent. The listing has nice image examples and I am including a couple of my own as well.

United States on Oct 18, 2022

RobertRobert: This review is one year in the making and refers to both ISBN 978-3-8365-7022-0 (the small size) and ISBN 978-3-8365-3229-7 (the full size) of Taschen's Kay Nielsen's East of the Sun and West of the Moon, old tales from the North in English (but I assume it will apply to the same book in other languages)

First the bad:
These aren't reading copies, the small is an abridged version of the original collection missing 5 of the 15 stories in the original version, the tales included are:
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
The Blue Belt
Prince Lindworm
The Lassie and Her Godmother
The Husband Who Was to Mind the House
The Three Princesses of Witheland
The Giant With No Heart in His Body
The Widows Son
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
The Three Princesses in the Blue Mountain

The big version does include the other five:
The Lad Who Went to the North Wind
Soria Moria Castle
The Princess on the Glass Hill
The Cat on the Dovrefel
One's Own Children are Always Prettiest
All of these short except for Soria Moria, and The Glass Hill. Soria Moria castle been very similar to the other two tales with 'Three Princesses' in the...

Mexico on Sep 25, 2020

LKP: First - the quibbles. I just saw the exhibit of Kay Nielsen's work at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston; and one of the huge discoveries was to see the SIZE of the individual paintings. They are small, very discreet, and remarkable in their fine details and almost inexplicable degree of ornamentation. Many of the reproductions in this book are larger......and rather than shedding MORE light on the artwork, I feel the artist himself would be horrified to see his delicate line work "under the microscope". That's just my opinion, but I did have a strong reaction to seeing the artwork shown
"larger than life".....and not in a favorable way. However, putting that consideration aside, I am very happy to own this book. It is handsomely designed (the hard cover version, at least), with very attractive page design, a ribbon bookmark, good color reproductions, fine paper stock, etc. I was very glad to read the first section, giving more information about Nielsen and his era, influences, etc. And the balance of book provides insight about this remarkable/singular artist. I know the comparisons to Arthur Rackham and Beardsley are inevitable -- but I really feel this artist totally commanded...

United States on Jan 10, 2020

Trollbeard: This is the finest version of this book that I've ever seen, and I believe I've seen them all, including the first edition with its tipped-in plates. Taschen's edition contains all 25 of the original color illustrations that us Nielsen fans are so familiar with, but thankfully in oversized (7.5" x 10.5") format. Better yet, twelve of these are newly-scanned in high-resolution from the 12 surviving Nielsen original water-colors for this book! These versions are far and away the best reproductions to date of these pieces. The book also features all of the numerous black and white pieces, also oversized. It also features beautiful close-ups from many of the color pieces, which are a revelation in themselves. What a joy to finally see the zoomed-in details of the princess's faces, knights, dragons, etc. The prefaces feature an excellent biography of Nielsen, a thumbnail history of Norway and Norse folk-tale-collecting which creates the perfect atmosphere for reading the stories, and a history of the pre-WW1 British gift-art-book. And best of all, the book not only contains a sampling of paintings from Nielsen's other books, but a couple of pieces from private collections that I've...

United States on Dec 30, 2015

Cynical Justin: Pre-ordered this for my wife - of Swedish heritage - for Christmas. It's hard for me to tell if this is strictly Norwegian tales or those from all of Scandinavia, but I would think anyone from that region (or not!) would enjoy it. The book itself is sturdy and well-crafted, and it comes with a cover/sheath as depicted. Nothing to write home about. The illustrations, however, are beautiful. Given past publications of this book, they are the primary allure, and they are indeed worth it. Kay Nielsen brings the tales alive. The style is unique and Renaissance-esk; it is not photorealistic or "clean," while not straying anywhere near cartoony. The images shown by Amazon are true to the quality of the printed page. Cracking open the book for the first time was a joy.

If I had one complaint, it would be that drawings are not evenly dispersed throughout the book. For instance, I was hoping for something a little more elaborate for Three Billy Goats Gruff (even if it's only two pages long), particularly given the recurring roll trolls play within Norwegian culture. This is not enough to downgrade my rating, as I certainly would not expect/want drawings on every page, but it is...

United States on Dec 28, 2015