The book had a light blue cloth binding. The plot revolved roughly around a young man who enters a cursed castle. He is invited in by floating ghostly hands. He has to pass a series of challenges, such as pulling yards of beautifully decorated linen through the eye of a needle. Another challenge involved miniature dogs on pillows (I’m not sure what he did with them). It was a very fantastical story. Illustration had bold black lines and solid colors. In the end I believe he marries a princess.
This is the fairy tale ‘The White Cat.’ A king is growing old and trying to determine to which of his three sons to leave his kingdom. He sends them out on quests to determine which is most worthy – but after the completion of each quest, he is not yet ready to give up his throne, so he sends them on another. He assigns the three boys to each go into the world and bring him back the smallest and most beautiful dog. The youngest encounters the castle and is invited in and attended to by the invisible hands. While he stays there, he meets the mistress of the castle – a beautiful white cat – and they become friends. When it is time to depart, she gives him an acorn and when he presents it to his father, it opens and there is a tiny dog inside. The king then sends the boys out again, this time to find fabric that can pass through the eye of a needle. Again, the boy returns to the white cat’s castle, and this time, when he departs, she gives him fabric so fine that not only could it pass through the needle once, it could be folded and passed through multiple times. (He is, by now, falling in love with the cat and wants to remain with her, but she won’t let him.) Finally, each son is sent out to find the most beautiful princess to be his queen. Again the prince returns to the white cat. This time, when it is time for him to depart, she orders him to cut off her head and tail and throw them into the fire. He doesn’t want to, but finally he does as he is told and she becomes a beautiful princess and explains to him how she and all her court were under a curse. At the same time, the rest of her court (the invisible hands – or paws, really) are returned to human form. The prince takes her back to his father and she reveals that she actually rules multiple kingdoms – enough for herself and her prince and the prince’s brother – so that the king need not give up his own throne yet after all.
Just a quick addition to my previous comment: ‘The White Cat’ has been printed many times, both as a stand-alone book and as part of larger anthologies of fairy tales, with many different illustrators. Some of the anthologies do use The White Cat as their title story (such as ‘The White Cat and Other Old French Fairy Tales’ or ‘The White Cat and Other Stories’). If you are looking for a specific version, your best bet would be to do an online image search (Google or search engine of choice) for “The White Cat” + “Fairy Tale” (to weed out all the pictures of actual cats). Then just scroll through the images until you find one you recognize.
Thanks so much!!!
You’re welcome!