#759 of 1001 · August 29, 2022

Today I’ve been combing through this merry adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s short story Sorotchintzy Fair, adapted by Countess Sybil Schönfeldt, translated from German by Daniel Reynolds, and illustrated by Gennadij Spirin. The narrative centers on a young woman named Paraska, out riding with her father and stepmother. When the three of them visit the Fair at Sorotchintzy, Paraska meets a beautiful young man in a white coat and wishes to take him as her betrothed. Though her father is willing, her stepmother frowns on the match. Soon afterward, the father is disturbed by tales of a herd of demonic swine conjured by the Devil to torment the townspeople who mislaid his Red Coat. Hoodwinked by the thought of this monster and by a staged accusation of theft, he eventually agrees to the match between his daughter and the fine young man. The structure of this abridgment remains largely faithful to the original, with a few changes here and there for propriety (a Jew is changed to an innkeeper). Spirin’s marvelous paintings provide a lively air of old world charm, with fragments of occult imagery peeking in at the edges. #fair #devil #red #coat #pig #pigs #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks