With the art work of Walter Crane so delightful -- and so delightfully reminiscent of Good Queen Victoria’s day, a publisher needs no excuse for bringing out a new reproduction. Such a project would justify the fastidious care of a Heritage Press or Folio Society, with embossed binding and boxed cover and, of course, a concomitant price. That someone should be so thoughtful and beneficent as to bring out an edition in a soft cover with a manageable price, and yet preserve the integrity of the art work, with such careful imitation of the original, and fine paper and design – well, it’s actually too much to hope for in this economy and in such an era of world crisis. Yet Pook Press is specializing in just this sort of work. Their website (www.pookpress.com) explains:

Pook Press celebrates the great Golden Age of Illustration in children's literature. Many of the earliest children's books, particularly those dating back to the 1850s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Pook Press are working to republish these classic works in affordable, high quality, colour editions, using the original text and artwork so these works can delight another generation of children.

This current book, A Masque of Days, adapted from The Last Essays of Elia, and illustrated (or Newly Dressed & Decorated) by Walter Crane, is a fine example of their selectivity and dedication.

Now let’s be candid: this book is not going to “delight another generation of children,” not the generation of the 2010’s, not in the USA. Because its humor (or humour, if you want to maintain the British aura) is based on days that would have been quite familiar to “public” school children in nineteenth-century England, but not to most children of here and now; for example, Shrove Tuesday, the Vigils, Twelfth Day, Mayor’s Day, Quarter Days, the Fifth of November, Candlemas, even May-Day or days associated with old Whigs or new Tories.

Never mind. For those of us in our second childhood; for the flower children whom we brought up (or let grow up in their own world); for those perpetual children with eyes and souls innocent enough to see Crane’s art with the eyes and soul of a child – for all of us, this book (and others like it) will be a godsend. The figures representing all these days, done in delicate line drawings and painted with colors (er, colours, that is) that are at one softy pastel and brilliant (you have to see them to understand this) will appeal to the child in all of us. Everyone will delight in April’s Food Day, who keeps cropping up among the guests at this gala celebration. Mayor’s Days and Christmas Day are suitably obese and ornate, bald and bearded. Naturally, we’re pleased at the finis when Longest Day, clad in “beautiful crimson & gold,” sets of westward, her train flowing behind her, quite literally shining with the rays of the sun and the lush flowering of summer (and, by the way, in the distance, in the silvery light of the moon, Valentine’s Day makes off with pretty, dainty May).

But my favorites (and I think they catch Crane at this best) are two double-page spreads: first, Shrove Tuesday, with pancakes at his elbow, is swapping goodies with September the Second. Shrove Tuesday, dressed in his hunting attire, with his arrows behind him as well as a fighting cock perched on a knight’s armor. is sharing cock soup (obviously the arrows or some other weapon caught one of the cocks unawares). September Second, dressed in brilliant green hunting attire, with her hat festooned with long pheasant feathers, is sharing “a delicate thigh of a hen pheasant.” I can’t help but think Crane slipped in a little double entendre here for the amusement of the adults sharing this book with their children. On the next page, however, Shrove Tuesday, also known of course as Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, or Pancake Day, is dressed in his simple monk’s robe, with his bald pate shining, his monk’s hood drooping behind him, a rope with a medallion tied around his waist, his fat haunches more than filling his chair, and his sandaled feet comfortably crossed. He is helping himself to his thick stack of pancakes. At the other end of the table, the Last of Lent, lean and lank, stern and solemn, dressed in puritanical gray, is poised to dine. He has brought his own simple, scowling calf’s head, which he has prepared himself. But he’s probably ogling Fat Tuesday’s pile of pancakes. April Food, in his role as jester, with good humor and a hint of caustic wit, “perceiving told him he did well, for pancakes were proper to a good fry-day.” Ah, yes. Shakespeare’s jester lives on!

The most fabulously dressed ladies were the “new-fangled lady of the Tory stamp,” in a floral print, feathers, frills, and long strands of baubles, and Candlemas in folds and folds of white crinoline and a sweeping train in yellow and gold, as if aflame with candlelight herself. Dog Days is a scruff looking bulldog, who exposes Valentine’s courting of May. The surly old Fifth of November is unanimously voted out by the rest of the company. There’s the lady March Many weathers, whose gown has streamers blowing in the wind. She faints dead away when she espies old Lent’s calf’s head, but she is restored with a confection made from Oak Apples supplied by the dandy, May Twnety-Ninth. His dandy costume is more elaborate than that of any of the ladies, his hair longer, more golden, and better coiffed, and his garters more obvious. He wears the Oak Apples all over and strews them all around.

No, I don’t think today’s children will understand these days, and I doubt that children ever caught all the humor (humour), but the child in me will go back to it again and again.

The reproduction is authentic to the last detail, except of course the binding. I wish there could have been a couple of pages of notes regarding the original production, the public response, and Crane’s methods and reputation. But that might have turned this into a scholarly tome. Heaven forbid! So enjoy!

Oh, yes. I almost forgot. Wedding Day is a very prissy male. On the page facing him is Pay Day, with Doom’s Day riding on his shoulders. Yes, I’m sure some of the wit was intended for Adults. ( )

What a delightful book! It reminded me of J. R. R. Tolkien or C. S. Lewis at their most piquant, reaching back to the old calendar to people a mythology with the days of the year. The story is simple; it's a party. The New Year comes into his father's estate by Calendar Law, "as soon as the breath is out of the old man's body," at which point "nothing would serve the young spark but that he must give a dinner upon the occasion, to which all the Days in the year were invited" (1). Thus begins a deliciously clever imagining of how all the days of the year would interact if they were people.

In Walter Crane's hands, the days of the year provide a cast as varied as humanity itself. There is the old incendiary, the Fifth of November, who is banished to the cellar for being a firebrand. There is Valentine's Day making love to May — and of course, April Fool, who makes several appearances. We even get some good old English politics in the 12th of August, a "zealous old Whig gentlewoman," and the Twenty-Third of April, "a newfangled lady of the Tory stamp," who argue over the right to give the toast (23). Lady Day appears, though she "kept a little aloof and seemed somewhat scornful" (7–8). And there is Christmas Day plying Ash Wednesday with the Wassail bowl, and the Last of Lent "spunging Shrove-tide's pancakes," and all manner of other Days feasting (or not, in the case of the Fasts) right merrily.

That has probably given you a taste of the clever fun of the story, and there's plenty more:

"Pay Day came late, as he always does; and Doomsday sent word—he might be expected" (12).

Or the way the table was set:

"Covers were provided for three hundred and sixty-five guests at the principal table; with an occasional knife and fork at the sideboard for the Twenty-Ninth of February" (4).

:)

I must also say a word about the wonderful illustrations. Colorful, humorous, and imaginative, Crane's work is a delight and perfectly complements the quirky fun of the narrative. The attention to detail is very rewarding to the reader; each character is lovingly rendered in attitudes and dress entirely in accordance with his or her description. I especially like the long, flowing dresses of the elegant women.

I sometimes fall into the chronological snobbery of assuming that people in previous centuries didn't have nearly the sense of the comedic that we have nowadays. But the more I read their books, the more I am inclined to think it's the other way around, that they had the real humor and all we have is a pale imitation in coarse buffoonery. If you tend to think of 1901 as a stuffy time inhabited by stuffy people, you should attend the New Year's feast too and meet some of his guests for yourself. I enjoyed the festivities very much! ( )

The premise of A Masque of Days is that the Old Year has passed on and the New Year is coming of age. All the Days have gathered for a feast to honor them all. April Fool's plays jester. The Hours are moth-winged pageboys. Lent is a dour family dressed in black. Guy Fawkes Day is a villainous rogue. This personification of the calendar is a delight and Walter Crane's lively, intricate drawings are what you would expect from a master of the Golden Age of children's illustrations.

The idea of personified holidays is still alive today as we still have New Year's represented by a baby replacing the old, wizened outgoing year. We also have holiday "mascots" like Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Cupid. Many of the holidays featured are antiquated, so those who love Victorian-era references will have a lot of fun discovering new traditions.

Pook Press has done a splendid job restoring the beautiful color and line art of this book. They are a relatively new company with the mission of reprinting rare, hard to find classics of children's literature, often ones that would be too expensive for the average reader to be able to enjoy. I cannot think of a better purpose for a publishing company to have. ( )

A delightful and whimsical book that hopefully brings the beautiful illustration of Walter Crane to a new audience. A wry and rather subversive story is to be found withing, though younger readers will probably just look at the pretty pictures. ( )

My editition of this book is from Pook Press, a company which is republishing some of the early gems of children's literature in affordable editions. This particular choice certainly shows why Walter Crane is considered one of the leading lights of children's illustrated literature. His art is spectacularly beautiful, capturing and in some places extending the humor of the text. That text, by Charles Lamb, is sprightly and witty.

I am so glad this book has been reprinted. I am so glad to own it. But I have some trouble wondering just what the audience will be for it. Most children, for whom the press is ostensibly reprinting these editions, are not likely to get much of the humor, as references abound to holidays in the Roman Catholic calendar, and habits and customs which were already 100 years in the past when the book was first printed in 1901.

Students of illustration would do well to get it, as would old book enthusiasts, but I hope the company has a few books in the pipe which will appeal to a broader audience, as I would really like to see them succeed. ( )