Harlequinade books are similar to the flap-books we know these days. They usually consisted of two sheets of paper that were stitched together and one was over the other. You would read the story and look at the pictures, then you would be instructed to lift the flap to reveal the rest of the story and the other part of the picture.
In one paper I read, the author says he thinks that these books became popular because of the demand for the stage performances of pantomimes and clowns. He thinks that the pop-up books were sort of an extension of the stage show that people loved seeing, now they could in a way have their own piece of it.
In another article I found, they described this type of book as a “grey area” between books and art on paper. It is also said that the harlequinades were tough to read unless you opened the flaps to reveal the full story or picture.
This type of book was harder to find information about that I thought it would be. When I would search harlequinade books, I kept being taken to romance novels, which was kind of funny. I liked learning how they seemed to have been inspired by the stage performers, that makes the books sound fun back then, as if you could act out the shows yourself with these books.
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