The House of Joy

About this book

Nine white peahens appear, and a prince grows up troubled by the disappearance of his foster-sisters. Their story opens a collection whose fairy-tale joys are never entirely free of sorrow.

Laurence Housman's House of Joy contains eight tales, including The Prince with the Nine Sorrows, The Luck of the Roses and The Moon-Flower. Housman illustrated the book himself, making his delicate pen-and-ink designs part of the storytelling. The tales move through love, sacrifice and transformation with the emotional intensity of adult fairy stories, even when the language seems simple. It is a beautiful example of the illustrated fantasy book at the close of the nineteenth century.