#703 of 1001 · July 4, 2022

If you, like me, are regularly in the mood for a tale of grandeur, romance, and dark magic, Lisbeth Zwerger’s version of Swan Lake should do nicely. Out for a moonlit hunt, young prince encounters a maiden bewitched by an evil sorcerer to take the form of a swan each day from sunrise to midnight. The two of them declare their love for each other, and the young man resolves to break the spell. After he is tricked into pledging himself to an impostor, the prince must defeat the sorcerer and save the swan maiden once and for all. Zwerger’s text, translated from German by Marianne Martens, brims with energy and wonder. Her illustrations employ quiet symbolism to externalize the traits of various characters: the maidens’ bodies always contain swanlike features and the sorcerer enters the grand ballroom with a dark lighting cloud overhead. Facing each illustration is a grand staff containing a musical passage from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s immortal ballet. #swan #lake #prince #ballet #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks