This most romantic of fairy tales is found in many versions, and the story of the beautiful girl who falls into a long sleep, to be awakened by a lover, has been interpreted by some as an allegory of the spring revival of the earth after a long winter. Charles Seddon Evans, a schoolmaster turned publisher, retold the story specially for Arthur Rackham, who illustrated it with silhouette drawing as a companion volume to CINDERELLA, both first published in 1919 and now reissued in Everyman's Library.
