A page from Stories from Hans Andersen, illustrated by Edmund Dulac in 1912, offers a rare chance to see how the magic of storytelling and the visual arts entwined in the early twentieth century. Here, the most striking feature is not an image but the careful choreography of text and ornament: a delicate border frames the narrative, while floral motifs at the top and bottom hint at the fantastical world within. The title, The Mermaid, floats above a passage that conjures the tension and wonder of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale.

Every flourish in the border and every measured line of type is designed to draw the reader into the unfolding drama—first the calm, then the storm—mirroring the little mermaid’s own journey between two worlds. This page belongs to a golden age of illustrated books, when artists like Edmund Dulac were commissioned to bring classic stories to life for a new generation of readers. In 1912, such volumes were prized possessions, often given as gifts or displayed in the parlors of middle-class homes. The Maastricht University Library now holds this copy, a testament to the era’s faith in the power of beauty and imagination to elevate the everyday.

While history has kept few traces of this specific page’s journey, the care in its design invites us to linger—reminding us that sometimes, the margins of a story are as enchanting as the tale itself.