diff --git a/src/calibre/web/fetch/simple.py b/src/calibre/web/fetch/simple.py
index 076b619ee4..9993d9a3db 100644
--- a/src/calibre/web/fetch/simple.py
+++ b/src/calibre/web/fetch/simple.py
@@ -201,6 +201,24 @@ class RecursiveFetcher(object):
     def fetch_url(self, url):
         data = None
         self.log.debug('Fetching', url)
+
+        # Check for a URL pointing to the local filesystem and special case it
+        # for efficiency and robustness. Bypasses delay checking as it does not
+        # apply to local fetches. Ensures that unicode paths that are not
+        # representable in the filesystem_encoding work.
+        is_local = 0
+        if url.startswith('file://'):
+            is_local = 7
+        elif url.startswith('file:'):
+            is_local = 5
+        if is_local > 0:
+            url = url[is_local:]
+            with open(url, 'rb') as f:
+                data = response(f.read())
+                data.newurl = 'file:'+url # This is what mechanize does for
+                                          # local URLs
+            return data
+
         delta = time.time() - self.last_fetch_at
         if delta < self.delay:
             time.sleep(self.delay - delta)