1896 — Good Russian Contemporary cloth bdg. One tear on one page, no missing on text. Some foxing on pages. 4to. (29 x 23 cm). In Russian. 51 p., 49 unnumbered b/w plates. Skazka o Çare saltane; o s'ne ego, Slavnom i mogucem bogatire kniaze gvidone saltanovice i o prekrasnoi charevne lebedi. This is a late 19th century edition. First Edition in 1831. [= The tale of Tsar Saltan]. The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan is an 1831 fairy tale in verse which is also a Pushkin-inspired opera by Dargomyzhsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1900. As a folk tale it is classified as Aarne-Thompson type 707 for its dancing water, singing apple and speaking bird. The story is about three sisters. The youngest is chosen by Tsar Saltan (Saltán) to be his wife. He orders the other two sisters to be his royal cook and weaver. They become jealous of their younger sister. When the tsar goes off to war, the tsaritsa gives birth to a son, Prince Gvidon (Gvidón.) The older sisters arrange to have the tsaritsa and the child sealed in a barrel and thrown into the sea. The sea takes pity on them and casts them on the shore of a remote island, Buyan. The son, having quickly grown while in the barrel, goes hunting. He ends up saving an enchanted swan from a kite bird. The swan creates a city for Prince Gvidon to rule, but he is homesick, so the swan turns him into a mosquito to help him. In this guise, he visits Tsar Saltan's court, where he stings his aunt in the eye and escapes. Back in his realm, the swan gives Gvidon a magical squirrel. But he continues to pine for home, so the swan transforms him again, this time into a fly. In this guise Prince Gvidon visits Saltan's court again and he stings his older aunt in the eye. The third time, the Prince is transformed into a bumblebee and stings the nose of his grandmother. OCLC has not this edition. Scarce.
