This is the first time Boris Artzybasheff has made a Russian book. The story is Russian and the design and plan of the book are Russian from start to finish.

The drawings are light and airy but there is exquisite precision in their design and in the rich interplay of red and green and gold and black.

Mr. Artzybasheff says it is a cheerful tale and so it is—gay and amusing, with a touch of the ancient irony that makes a peasant better than a king.

From the dust jacket of the 1961 reprint