George Cruikshank's Fairy Library

George Cruikshank gave his all to the depiction of the fearsome ogre of "Hop-o'-My-Thumb," a trickster tale first published in France in Charles Perrault's Histoires ou contes du temps passé. In the set-up scene shown here, Cruikshank presents the youngest of a poor woodcutter's seven children as the least likely of heroes. Later, in a reversal of fortune sure to delight child readers, small but quick-witted Hop proves to have more than enough tricks up his sleeve to save himself and his entire family.

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