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Item: The Water of the Wondrous Isles

William Morris

1896

Book, 340 p, language: English, publisher: Kelmscott Press.
Materials: ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2029/577 + B 2029/578).

Literary synopsis “*In The Water of the Wondrous Isles*, Morris returns to a utopian un-historical medieval world of beautiful ladies and chivalric knights. Three ladies and their respective knights compose the original fellowship. The entrance of Birdalone introduces a fourth lady with her own set of sexual needs and desires. This curiously echoes the plot of Golden Wings in which the fair Jehane du Castel Beau waits with increasing frustration for her absent lover. Ultimately, Jehane's unrequited desires manifest in destruction, Gervaise discovers her dead body outside the castle walls and the land plunges into fear and warfare. Although Birdalone helps the champions rescue the three ladies, her forbidden attraction to Arthur, the Black Square, unleashes destructive force that threatens to tear the fabric of the fellowship and the ideal romanticism of their world apart.” -Siobhan Lam [Download book](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8778).

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