THE FROG PRINCE

The very first tale in the Brothers Grimm’s classic collection gets a lavish makeover.

Definitely not an exponent of inconspicuous book design, Schenker places finely rendered cut-paper figures with gold and silver highlights on sheets of clear acetate or plain expanses of creamy white and rich green paper for illustrations. The sheets are bound with exposed cords between plain black boards fronted by a die-cut title in an antique type, and the text—printed in several sizes, with gold initials and occasionally in green or gold ink—is a shortened and lightly burnished rendition of the 1857 and final version in an uncredited modern translation. Readers familiar with the sanitized versions and not so conscious of class expectations as formerly may well wonder what the prince, who is neither kissed nor allowed onto the royal bed but thrown against the wall, sees in the pouty, spoiled princess. It’s a question all right…but suddenly there he is, not only a hunk with “beautiful, friendly eyes,” but without further ado “her dear companion and husband.” Of the all-white cast only the prince’s servant Heinrich, the iron (gold, in the pictures) bands around his heart broken in joy, can likely look forward to a happy future.

Another dazzler from Schenker though, like many of the Hausmärchen, a patchwork affair that plotwise doesn’t come close to hanging together.