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The Coloured Fairy Books
The Blue Fairy Book
This wonderful collection of fairy stories, put together by Andrew Lang at the end of the 19th century, gathers many of the best loved tales of childhood - 'Old stories', Lang calls them in his preface, 'that have pleased so many generations'. They include the best of the English tradition, favourites from Grimm, Perrault, The Arabian Nights and Gulliver's Travels, as well as lesser-known tales and new re-tellings, such as Lang's own 'The Terrible Head' based on the Greek myth of Perseus and the Gorgon. Reared on border ballads told by his old nurse, Lang was reading by the age of four and devoured 'every fairy tale I could lay my hands on'. He was enthralled by trolls and witches, and stories of changelings and devilish hunts. Later the tales of Shakespeare, Homer and Dickens were to fire his imagination.
The Blue Fairy Book - so popular in its day that it went on to launch a series - has all the ingredients one would expect: the bewitched and the beautiful, the fearful and the brave. The good are as truehearted as they are fair, as heroic as they are handsome, but not everyone lives happily ever after, and even the prettiest of princesses cannot be happy if she forgets to keep her word.
Classic stories included in this collection: 'The Bronze Ring'; 'Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess'; 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon'; 'The Yellow Dwarf'; 'Little Red Riding-Hood'; 'The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood'; 'Cinderella; or, the Little Glass Slipper'; 'Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp'; 'The Tale of a Youth who Set out to Learn what Fear Was'; 'Rumpelstiltzkin'; 'Beauty and the Beast'; 'The Master-Maid'; 'Why the Sea is Salt'; 'The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots'; 'Felicia and the Pot of Pinks'; 'The White Cat'; 'The Water-Lily. The Gold-Spinners'; 'The Terrible Head'; 'The Story of Pretty Goldilocks'; 'The History of Whittington'; 'The Wonderful Sheep'; 'Little Thumb'; 'The Forty Thieves'; 'Hansel and Grettel'; 'Snow-White and Rose-Red'; 'The Goose-Girl'; 'Toads and Diamonds'; 'Prince Darling'; 'Blue Beard'; 'Trusty John'; 'The Brave Little Tailor'; 'A Voyage to Lilliput'; 'The Princess on the Glass Hill'; 'The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou'; 'The History of Jack the Giant-Killer'; 'The Black Bull of Norroway'; 'The Red Etin'.
The Blue Fairy Book - so popular in its day that it went on to launch a series - has all the ingredients one would expect: the bewitched and the beautiful, the fearful and the brave. The good are as truehearted as they are fair, as heroic as they are handsome, but not everyone lives happily ever after, and even the prettiest of princesses cannot be happy if she forgets to keep her word.
Classic stories included in this collection: 'The Bronze Ring'; 'Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess'; 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon'; 'The Yellow Dwarf'; 'Little Red Riding-Hood'; 'The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood'; 'Cinderella; or, the Little Glass Slipper'; 'Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp'; 'The Tale of a Youth who Set out to Learn what Fear Was'; 'Rumpelstiltzkin'; 'Beauty and the Beast'; 'The Master-Maid'; 'Why the Sea is Salt'; 'The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots'; 'Felicia and the Pot of Pinks'; 'The White Cat'; 'The Water-Lily. The Gold-Spinners'; 'The Terrible Head'; 'The Story of Pretty Goldilocks'; 'The History of Whittington'; 'The Wonderful Sheep'; 'Little Thumb'; 'The Forty Thieves'; 'Hansel and Grettel'; 'Snow-White and Rose-Red'; 'The Goose-Girl'; 'Toads and Diamonds'; 'Prince Darling'; 'Blue Beard'; 'Trusty John'; 'The Brave Little Tailor'; 'A Voyage to Lilliput'; 'The Princess on the Glass Hill'; 'The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou'; 'The History of Jack the Giant-Killer'; 'The Black Bull of Norroway'; 'The Red Etin'.
372 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1889
2357 people are currently reading
17517 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Lang
2,898 books557 followersTales of the Scottish writer and anthropologist Andrew Lang include
The Blue Fairy Book
(1889).
Andrew Gabriel Lang, a prolific Scotsman of letters, contributed poetry, novels, literary criticism, and collected now best folklore.
The Young Scholar and Journalist
Andrew Gabriel Lang, the son of the town clerk and the eldest of eight children, lived in Selkirk in the Scottish borderlands. The wild and beautiful landscape of childhood greatly affected the youth and inspired a lifelong love of the outdoors and a fascination with local folklore and history. Charles Edward Stuart and Robert I the Bruce surrounded him in the borders, a rich area in history. He later achieved his literary Short History of Scotland .
A gifted student and avid reader, Lang went to the prestigious Saint Andrews University, which now holds a lecture series in his honor every few years, and then to Balliol College, Oxford. He later published Oxford: Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes about the city in 1880.
Moving to London at the age of 31 years in 1875 as an already published poet, he started working as a journalist. His dry sense of humor, style, and huge array of interests made him a popular editor and columnist quickly for The Daily Post, Time magazine and Fortnightly Review. Whilst working in London, he met and married Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang, his wife.
Interest in myths and folklore continued as he and Leonora traveled through France and Italy to hear local legends, from which came the most famous The Rainbow Fairy Books . In the late 19th century, interest in the native stories declined and very few persons recounting them for young readers. In fact, some educationalists attacked harmful magical stories in general to children. To challenge this notion, Lang first began collecting stories for the first of his colored volumes.
Lang gathered already recorded stories, while other folklorists collected stories directly from source. He used his time to collect a much greater breadth over the world from Jacob Grimm, his brother, Madame d'Aulnoy, and other less well sources.
Lang also worked as the editor, often credited as its sole creator for his work despite the essential support of his wife, who transcribed and organised the translation of the text, to the success.
He published to wide acclaim. The beautiful illustrations and magic captivated the minds of children and adults alike. The success first allowed Lang and Leonora to carry on their research and in 1890 to publish a much larger print run of The Red Fairy Book , which drew on even more sources. Between 1889 and 1910, they published twelve collections, which, each with a different colored binding, collected, edited and translated a total of 437 stories. Lang, credited with reviving interest in folklore, more importantly revolutionized the Victorian view and inspired generations of parents to begin reading them to children once more.
Last Works
Lang produced and at the same time continued a wide assortment of novels, literary criticism, articles, and poetry. As Anita Silvey, literary critic, however, noted, "The irony of Lang's life and work is that although he wrote for a profession... he is best recognized for the works he did not write," the folk stories that he collected.
He finished not the last Highways and Byways of the Border but died.
Andrew Gabriel Lang, a prolific Scotsman of letters, contributed poetry, novels, literary criticism, and collected now best folklore.
The Young Scholar and Journalist
Andrew Gabriel Lang, the son of the town clerk and the eldest of eight children, lived in Selkirk in the Scottish borderlands. The wild and beautiful landscape of childhood greatly affected the youth and inspired a lifelong love of the outdoors and a fascination with local folklore and history. Charles Edward Stuart and Robert I the Bruce surrounded him in the borders, a rich area in history. He later achieved his literary Short History of Scotland .
A gifted student and avid reader, Lang went to the prestigious Saint Andrews University, which now holds a lecture series in his honor every few years, and then to Balliol College, Oxford. He later published Oxford: Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes about the city in 1880.
Moving to London at the age of 31 years in 1875 as an already published poet, he started working as a journalist. His dry sense of humor, style, and huge array of interests made him a popular editor and columnist quickly for The Daily Post, Time magazine and Fortnightly Review. Whilst working in London, he met and married Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang, his wife.
Interest in myths and folklore continued as he and Leonora traveled through France and Italy to hear local legends, from which came the most famous The Rainbow Fairy Books . In the late 19th century, interest in the native stories declined and very few persons recounting them for young readers. In fact, some educationalists attacked harmful magical stories in general to children. To challenge this notion, Lang first began collecting stories for the first of his colored volumes.
Lang gathered already recorded stories, while other folklorists collected stories directly from source. He used his time to collect a much greater breadth over the world from Jacob Grimm, his brother, Madame d'Aulnoy, and other less well sources.
Lang also worked as the editor, often credited as its sole creator for his work despite the essential support of his wife, who transcribed and organised the translation of the text, to the success.
He published to wide acclaim. The beautiful illustrations and magic captivated the minds of children and adults alike. The success first allowed Lang and Leonora to carry on their research and in 1890 to publish a much larger print run of The Red Fairy Book , which drew on even more sources. Between 1889 and 1910, they published twelve collections, which, each with a different colored binding, collected, edited and translated a total of 437 stories. Lang, credited with reviving interest in folklore, more importantly revolutionized the Victorian view and inspired generations of parents to begin reading them to children once more.
Last Works
Lang produced and at the same time continued a wide assortment of novels, literary criticism, articles, and poetry. As Anita Silvey, literary critic, however, noted, "The irony of Lang's life and work is that although he wrote for a profession... he is best recognized for the works he did not write," the folk stories that he collected.
He finished not the last Highways and Byways of the Border but died.
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May 24, 2021
my becoming-a-genius project, part 7!
if you are still there, and therefore presumably have not seen projects 1 through 6, here's the sitch:
i have decided to become a genius.
to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity.
i'm mixing it up this timemostly because i ran out of short story collections and am trying to get even somewhat better about buying books. this was one of my very favorite books when i was a kid and i've been meaning to reread it for ages, so boom. two birds, meet one stone.
it's also got 37 fairytales in it, so i am going to have to double up just so i don't cause death by pure irritation to both myself and my loved ones (meaning you all).
PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR
PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO
PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON
PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN
PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE
PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG
DAY 1, PART 1: THE BRONZE RING
i truly do not own a book more bedraggled than this one. it looks like it went through the laundry, was crumpled up into a wet ball, and then was ironed out in a panini press before it ever reached my hands.
anyway, this is classic stuff: a princess in love with a commoner, a quest, a bronze ring that grants every wish so the wisher immediately uses it on a boat captained by Santa. the usual.
rating: 3.5
DAY 1, PART 2: PRINCE HYACINTH AND THE DEAR LITTLE PRINCESS
the ~moral~ of this one is supposed to be that self-love prevents you from loving others, because Hyacinth had a huge nose and was always told that was hot as hell and was cursed not to be happy until he realized it wasn't, but i think a better moral is that beauty standards are stupid.
rating: 3
DAY 2, PART 1: EAST OF THE SUN & WEST OF THE MOON
i remember this being my favorite, but that might be exclusively because of the ICONIC retelling by edith pattou. (someone remind me to reread that.)
this is a rad story and also the girl is the hero (AND the girl is just some rando, not a princess or anything, so double cool), but there's an inexplicable Christian thing going on here that really threatened to suck the fun out of everything. feeling: #blessed to live in the 21st century.
rating: 3.5
DAY 2, PART 2: THE YELLOW DWARF
this is another one that i vaguely remember, mostly because i became the kind of f*cked up kid to whom "playing Barbies" means "the action figures are kidnapping the Barbies again, and the creepy middle-aged-woman doll i got in a Happy Meal once is orchestrating the whole thing." pretty sure reading stories like this one instead of sticking to Disney versions turned me into the monster you see today.
anyway. this is a story of two beautiful dummies who keep being surprised that the world doesn't revolve around them, and then they die at the end. fun conclusion, not the best reading experience.
rating: 3
DAY 3, PART 1: LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD
i think we can all agree that this is one of the most overrated fairytales of all time. which is a bummer, because normally the idea of a grandmother-eating wolf vs a little girl is very compelling.
mercifully, this version was 3 pages long and one page was an illustration. all that happens is girl meets wolf, wolf eats girl. it's a blessing.
rating: 3.5
DAY 3, PART 2: THE SLEEPING BEAUTY IN THE WOOD
looks like we've reached the Classic Fairytales Pre-Disneyfication section. picture those animated princesses with disproportionately large eyes, only this time with 300% more violence!
this is way, way better than the modern version. it doesn't end with sleeping beauty waking up, or whatever (i haven't seen the movie in like 15 years), so we get this amazing line: "They had but very little sleep - the Princess had no occasion." i am obviously taking that as confirmation that every prince and princess spends their wedding night with a one-way train to poundtown.
also excellent is that more than half of this story is about how the prince's mom is an ogre and wants to eat his kids. where did all of that go, Disney?
rating: 3.75
DAY 4, PART 1: CINDERELLA OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER
the Classic Fairytales Pre-Disneyfication section continues now! (i hope you read that in the voice of the Disney Channel narrator guy, because that's sure how i intended it.)
this is exactly the same as the Disney version, however - no blood or murder or monsters or ANYTHING - and therefore it is a snooze and i hate it utterly.
rating: 2
DAY 4, PART 2: ALADDIN AND THE WONDERFUL LAMP
i hope you didn't think we were done with our beloved Classic Fairytales Pre-Disneyfication section...because darling, we are not.
this one is a little more dramatic, but there's no robin williams to be found and also aladdin never frees either genie. he has two and he leaves them both enslaved. pretty messed up if you ask me.
rating: 3
DAY 5, PART 1: THE TALE OF A YOUTH WHO SET OUT TO LEARN WHAT FEAR WAS
another goddamn jewel in the lineup. a guy who is too stupid to understand what being scared is, so he pushes a "ghost" down a flight of stairs, gets mad because a group of corpses thinks they're too cool to talk to him, has a sleepover with some ghouls and cats (?) in a haunted house, and ultimately marries a princess for being brave as hell. good stuff.
rating: 4.25
DAY 6, PART 2: RUMPELSTILTZKIN
have never seen this spelling before but go off i guess.
i've always liked this fairytale in all versions (see above: i was a creepy kid). this one is kinda lame because it's truly 2 pages long, but still amazing because of the sheer hilarity of someone pulling off the perfect crime but being unable to not sing about it.
rating: 4
DAY 7, PART 1: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
back at it again with the pre-Disney!
this is very funny to me: "The first [room] she entered was lined with mirrors, and Beauty saw herself reflected on every side, and thought she had never seen such a charming room." looks like SOMEONE'S not a perfect boring kind humble princess figure like we thought. this would be more fun if beauty had some pizzazz.
this is actually a good story imo, whether it's Disney-fied or not, and this version includes siblings and a cooler palace so it's a win for me.
rating: 4
DAY 7, PART 2: THE MASTER-MAID
people in olden times really did love a good hyphen.
this story is very realistic, because it includes a rich man's son who is truly good for nothing except being hot and a woman who is both hot and smart and has to do literally everything for him. and i call upon you all to find me a straight couple that does not fit those parameters.
also amazing is that anytime a man has the audacity to fall in love with this woman, she comes up with the most crazy insane-o torture methods you have ever heard in your life and compels them to do them to themselves.
in conclusion, the master-maid is both my girlfriend and my role model, and any story that ends with a witchy person being torn into pieces for almost no reason is a good one in my book.
rating: 4.5
DAY 8, PART 1: WHY THE SEA IS SALT
i missed a day yesterday due to the fact that i was trying to get high but weed only makes me hungry. every once in a while i love to remind everyone on this site that i am a human person made up of a series of vices, like kids standing on each other's shoulders in a trench coat.
anyway today is day 9 but i'll be playing catch up.
not a big fan of this story, which is mostly about undeserving boring people getting rich.
rating: 2.5
DAY 8, PART 2: THE MASTER CAT, OR, PUSS IN BOOTS
imagine going from being called "the master cat" to "puss in boots." couldn't be me.
also: "there was a miller who left no more estate to the three sons he had than his mill, his ass, and his cat."
enough said.
rating: 3
DAY 9, PART 1: FELICIA AND THE POT OF PINKS
hard to imagine a less creative name for a pink flower than "pink." there is a talking cabbage in this, though, so we regained those creativity points pretty quick.
felicia does marry her cousin, so we can't win them all.
rating: 3.5
DAY 9, PART 2: THE WHITE CAT
fairytales are heavy into cats, no?
at the beginning of this, three princes are told to find the prettiest dog they can, and one of them can't decide and thus acquires 30 to 40 thousand dogs, which i find very relatable as a dog person myself.
same dude falls in love with a literal cat, though, so relatability ends there.
rating: 3.5
DAY 10, PART 1: THE WATER-LILY. THE GOLD-SPINNERS
i have to say, as an eldest sibling, the overrepresentation of youngest siblings in fairytales is personally hurtful to me. an eldest sibling would never flee a bad situation and leave her sisters enslaved in a hut. that's youngest sh*t.
however, once again, very good stuff to have a prince smear himself with mud and say he wants to become a crab.
rating: 3.5
DAY 10, PART 2: THE TERRIBLE HEAD
.......that's what she said.
this is a good lesson about the dangers of misogyny. (wishing you had a son sucks, because sons are bad and will kill you.)
anyway this is just the story of perseus with the names taken out.
rating: 3.5
DAY 11, PART 1: THE STORY OF PRETTY GOLDILOCKS
i kept waiting for the three bears to show up and they never did.
rating: 3.5
DAY 11, PART 2: THE HISTORY OF WHITTINGTON
off the bat this sounds boring as hell.
true to its name, it was. i'm trying to read fairytales, not charles dickens for kids.
rating: 2
DAY 12, PART 1: THE WONDERFUL SHEEP
if you've noticed my mini-reviews getting shorter, it's because i'm somehow already coming in hot against the character limit.
some things to note about this:
1) the king totally wants to f*ck his daughter
2) countless people and animals are willing to die for the most boring b*tch alive
3) this includes a sheep "smiling sheepishly," the greatest line ever written.
rating: 2.5
DAY 12, PART 2: LITTLE THUMB
the movie adaptation of Thumbelina where she gets kidnapped by that toad also contributed to my childhood barbies-getting-kidnapped habit. so.
anyway naming your kid "Little Thumb" is f*cked up no matter his size.
there are no toads in this version at all.
rating: 2.5
DAY 13, PART 1: THE FORTY THIEVES
my genius projects and depression sabbaticals really go together like peaches and cream. (i think it's day 17.) shall we run through 8 stories?
once again, the real hero of this story is one smart woman in a cast of dumb men.
rating: 3.5
DAY 13, PART 2: HANSEL AND GRETTEL
has gretel ever been spelled that way???
i wonder why this is the single fairytale that remains as creepy today as originally. witch in a candy house who eats kids? timelessly spooky.
rating: 3.5
DAY 14, PART 1: SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED
another falling-in-love-with-a-bear situation, except in this one the bear's a whole man who refers to himself as the "lover" of two children. aged like a fine wine.
rating: 3
DAY 14, PART 2: THE GOOSE-GIRL
in this story, a maid switches places with a princess and the princess complains all the time because being a maid sucks. and then the maid is gruesomely murdered when she's found out.
needless to say i think this is a moral about the lack of meritocracy in capitalism and i am firmly #TeamMaid.
rating: 3
DAY 15, PART 1: TOADS AND DIAMONDS
the elder sister in this is described as a "proud, saucy slut," a "pert hussey," and a "miserable wretch." same.
to be honest, it seems like a curse to me to have ANY material object come out of your mouth for every word you speak. whether it's a toad or a diamond.
rating: 3.5
DAY 15, PART 2: PRINCE DARLING
our darling prince is cursed to have "a lion's head, a bull's horns, a wolf's feet, and a snake's body." picture that. wow.
rating: 4
DAY 16, PART 1: BLUE BEARD
this is a story about how if you are dating someone and they tell you what to do you should absolutely not listen.
rating: 3.5
DAY 16, PART 2: TRUSTY JOHN
okay but like...anyone who gets a wife by kidnapping her and rewards a servant's fidelity by killing their own children is actually NOT a good dude.
rating: 3
DAY 17, PART 1: THE BRAVE LITTLE TAILOR
more like toaster, am i right??
rating: 3
DAY 17, PART 2: A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT
skipping this one because it's just Gulliver's Travels and therefore not a fairytale my dear boy.
DAY 18, PART 1: THE PRINCESS ON THE GLASS HILL
what if your name was "cinderlad"?
just something to think about.
rating: 2.5
DAY 18, PART 2: THE STORY OR PRINCE AHMED AND THE FAIRY PARIBANOU
this story is THIRTY. PAGES. LONG. and somehow that long-ass title isn't even 1 of them.
all that, and i really couldn't tell you what made it different from the 5-pagers.
rating: 3
DAY 19, PART 1: THE HISTORY OF JACK THE GIANT-KILLER
much more badass title than "jack and the beanstalk." which i guess make sense because there's no beanstalk in this. just a kid who's really into killing giants.
rating: 2.5
DAY 19, PART 2: THE BLACK BULL OF NORWAY
this one is inexplicably written in a different dialect than any other one. the kind of english where it looks like you're just making up how to spell words. definitely impacted my enjoyment.
rating: 2
DAY 19, PART 3: THE RED ETIN
going to finish this out today! aaaand i just hit the word count so time to trim.
this is in the same style as the last one (which i have realized is Old-Timey Scottish), so a soft no from me.
rating: 2.5
OVERALL
i will always have a soft spot in my heart for this book, but it is truly not as good as i remember it being. and also is all over the place.
but still. nostalgia is a powerful thing.
rating: 3.5
if you are still there, and therefore presumably have not seen projects 1 through 6, here's the sitch:
i have decided to become a genius.
to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity.
i'm mixing it up this time
it's also got 37 fairytales in it, so i am going to have to double up just so i don't cause death by pure irritation to both myself and my loved ones (meaning you all).
PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR
PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO
PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON
PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN
PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE BY OSCAR WILDE
PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG
DAY 1, PART 1: THE BRONZE RING
i truly do not own a book more bedraggled than this one. it looks like it went through the laundry, was crumpled up into a wet ball, and then was ironed out in a panini press before it ever reached my hands.
anyway, this is classic stuff: a princess in love with a commoner, a quest, a bronze ring that grants every wish so the wisher immediately uses it on a boat captained by Santa. the usual.
rating: 3.5
DAY 1, PART 2: PRINCE HYACINTH AND THE DEAR LITTLE PRINCESS
the ~moral~ of this one is supposed to be that self-love prevents you from loving others, because Hyacinth had a huge nose and was always told that was hot as hell and was cursed not to be happy until he realized it wasn't, but i think a better moral is that beauty standards are stupid.
rating: 3
DAY 2, PART 1: EAST OF THE SUN & WEST OF THE MOON
i remember this being my favorite, but that might be exclusively because of the ICONIC retelling by edith pattou. (someone remind me to reread that.)
this is a rad story and also the girl is the hero (AND the girl is just some rando, not a princess or anything, so double cool), but there's an inexplicable Christian thing going on here that really threatened to suck the fun out of everything. feeling: #blessed to live in the 21st century.
rating: 3.5
DAY 2, PART 2: THE YELLOW DWARF
this is another one that i vaguely remember, mostly because i became the kind of f*cked up kid to whom "playing Barbies" means "the action figures are kidnapping the Barbies again, and the creepy middle-aged-woman doll i got in a Happy Meal once is orchestrating the whole thing." pretty sure reading stories like this one instead of sticking to Disney versions turned me into the monster you see today.
anyway. this is a story of two beautiful dummies who keep being surprised that the world doesn't revolve around them, and then they die at the end. fun conclusion, not the best reading experience.
rating: 3
DAY 3, PART 1: LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD
i think we can all agree that this is one of the most overrated fairytales of all time. which is a bummer, because normally the idea of a grandmother-eating wolf vs a little girl is very compelling.
mercifully, this version was 3 pages long and one page was an illustration. all that happens is girl meets wolf, wolf eats girl. it's a blessing.
rating: 3.5
DAY 3, PART 2: THE SLEEPING BEAUTY IN THE WOOD
looks like we've reached the Classic Fairytales Pre-Disneyfication section. picture those animated princesses with disproportionately large eyes, only this time with 300% more violence!
this is way, way better than the modern version. it doesn't end with sleeping beauty waking up, or whatever (i haven't seen the movie in like 15 years), so we get this amazing line: "They had but very little sleep - the Princess had no occasion." i am obviously taking that as confirmation that every prince and princess spends their wedding night with a one-way train to poundtown.
also excellent is that more than half of this story is about how the prince's mom is an ogre and wants to eat his kids. where did all of that go, Disney?
rating: 3.75
DAY 4, PART 1: CINDERELLA OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER
the Classic Fairytales Pre-Disneyfication section continues now! (i hope you read that in the voice of the Disney Channel narrator guy, because that's sure how i intended it.)
this is exactly the same as the Disney version, however - no blood or murder or monsters or ANYTHING - and therefore it is a snooze and i hate it utterly.
rating: 2
DAY 4, PART 2: ALADDIN AND THE WONDERFUL LAMP
i hope you didn't think we were done with our beloved Classic Fairytales Pre-Disneyfication section...because darling, we are not.
this one is a little more dramatic, but there's no robin williams to be found and also aladdin never frees either genie. he has two and he leaves them both enslaved. pretty messed up if you ask me.
rating: 3
DAY 5, PART 1: THE TALE OF A YOUTH WHO SET OUT TO LEARN WHAT FEAR WAS
another goddamn jewel in the lineup. a guy who is too stupid to understand what being scared is, so he pushes a "ghost" down a flight of stairs, gets mad because a group of corpses thinks they're too cool to talk to him, has a sleepover with some ghouls and cats (?) in a haunted house, and ultimately marries a princess for being brave as hell. good stuff.
rating: 4.25
DAY 6, PART 2: RUMPELSTILTZKIN
have never seen this spelling before but go off i guess.
i've always liked this fairytale in all versions (see above: i was a creepy kid). this one is kinda lame because it's truly 2 pages long, but still amazing because of the sheer hilarity of someone pulling off the perfect crime but being unable to not sing about it.
rating: 4
DAY 7, PART 1: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
back at it again with the pre-Disney!
this is very funny to me: "The first [room] she entered was lined with mirrors, and Beauty saw herself reflected on every side, and thought she had never seen such a charming room." looks like SOMEONE'S not a perfect boring kind humble princess figure like we thought. this would be more fun if beauty had some pizzazz.
this is actually a good story imo, whether it's Disney-fied or not, and this version includes siblings and a cooler palace so it's a win for me.
rating: 4
DAY 7, PART 2: THE MASTER-MAID
people in olden times really did love a good hyphen.
this story is very realistic, because it includes a rich man's son who is truly good for nothing except being hot and a woman who is both hot and smart and has to do literally everything for him. and i call upon you all to find me a straight couple that does not fit those parameters.
also amazing is that anytime a man has the audacity to fall in love with this woman, she comes up with the most crazy insane-o torture methods you have ever heard in your life and compels them to do them to themselves.
in conclusion, the master-maid is both my girlfriend and my role model, and any story that ends with a witchy person being torn into pieces for almost no reason is a good one in my book.
rating: 4.5
DAY 8, PART 1: WHY THE SEA IS SALT
i missed a day yesterday due to the fact that i was trying to get high but weed only makes me hungry. every once in a while i love to remind everyone on this site that i am a human person made up of a series of vices, like kids standing on each other's shoulders in a trench coat.
anyway today is day 9 but i'll be playing catch up.
not a big fan of this story, which is mostly about undeserving boring people getting rich.
rating: 2.5
DAY 8, PART 2: THE MASTER CAT, OR, PUSS IN BOOTS
imagine going from being called "the master cat" to "puss in boots." couldn't be me.
also: "there was a miller who left no more estate to the three sons he had than his mill, his ass, and his cat."
enough said.
rating: 3
DAY 9, PART 1: FELICIA AND THE POT OF PINKS
hard to imagine a less creative name for a pink flower than "pink." there is a talking cabbage in this, though, so we regained those creativity points pretty quick.
felicia does marry her cousin, so we can't win them all.
rating: 3.5
DAY 9, PART 2: THE WHITE CAT
fairytales are heavy into cats, no?
at the beginning of this, three princes are told to find the prettiest dog they can, and one of them can't decide and thus acquires 30 to 40 thousand dogs, which i find very relatable as a dog person myself.
same dude falls in love with a literal cat, though, so relatability ends there.
rating: 3.5
DAY 10, PART 1: THE WATER-LILY. THE GOLD-SPINNERS
i have to say, as an eldest sibling, the overrepresentation of youngest siblings in fairytales is personally hurtful to me. an eldest sibling would never flee a bad situation and leave her sisters enslaved in a hut. that's youngest sh*t.
however, once again, very good stuff to have a prince smear himself with mud and say he wants to become a crab.
rating: 3.5
DAY 10, PART 2: THE TERRIBLE HEAD
.......that's what she said.
this is a good lesson about the dangers of misogyny. (wishing you had a son sucks, because sons are bad and will kill you.)
anyway this is just the story of perseus with the names taken out.
rating: 3.5
DAY 11, PART 1: THE STORY OF PRETTY GOLDILOCKS
i kept waiting for the three bears to show up and they never did.
rating: 3.5
DAY 11, PART 2: THE HISTORY OF WHITTINGTON
off the bat this sounds boring as hell.
true to its name, it was. i'm trying to read fairytales, not charles dickens for kids.
rating: 2
DAY 12, PART 1: THE WONDERFUL SHEEP
if you've noticed my mini-reviews getting shorter, it's because i'm somehow already coming in hot against the character limit.
some things to note about this:
1) the king totally wants to f*ck his daughter
2) countless people and animals are willing to die for the most boring b*tch alive
3) this includes a sheep "smiling sheepishly," the greatest line ever written.
rating: 2.5
DAY 12, PART 2: LITTLE THUMB
the movie adaptation of Thumbelina where she gets kidnapped by that toad also contributed to my childhood barbies-getting-kidnapped habit. so.
anyway naming your kid "Little Thumb" is f*cked up no matter his size.
there are no toads in this version at all.
rating: 2.5
DAY 13, PART 1: THE FORTY THIEVES
my genius projects and depression sabbaticals really go together like peaches and cream. (i think it's day 17.) shall we run through 8 stories?
once again, the real hero of this story is one smart woman in a cast of dumb men.
rating: 3.5
DAY 13, PART 2: HANSEL AND GRETTEL
has gretel ever been spelled that way???
i wonder why this is the single fairytale that remains as creepy today as originally. witch in a candy house who eats kids? timelessly spooky.
rating: 3.5
DAY 14, PART 1: SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED
another falling-in-love-with-a-bear situation, except in this one the bear's a whole man who refers to himself as the "lover" of two children. aged like a fine wine.
rating: 3
DAY 14, PART 2: THE GOOSE-GIRL
in this story, a maid switches places with a princess and the princess complains all the time because being a maid sucks. and then the maid is gruesomely murdered when she's found out.
needless to say i think this is a moral about the lack of meritocracy in capitalism and i am firmly #TeamMaid.
rating: 3
DAY 15, PART 1: TOADS AND DIAMONDS
the elder sister in this is described as a "proud, saucy slut," a "pert hussey," and a "miserable wretch." same.
to be honest, it seems like a curse to me to have ANY material object come out of your mouth for every word you speak. whether it's a toad or a diamond.
rating: 3.5
DAY 15, PART 2: PRINCE DARLING
our darling prince is cursed to have "a lion's head, a bull's horns, a wolf's feet, and a snake's body." picture that. wow.
rating: 4
DAY 16, PART 1: BLUE BEARD
this is a story about how if you are dating someone and they tell you what to do you should absolutely not listen.
rating: 3.5
DAY 16, PART 2: TRUSTY JOHN
okay but like...anyone who gets a wife by kidnapping her and rewards a servant's fidelity by killing their own children is actually NOT a good dude.
rating: 3
DAY 17, PART 1: THE BRAVE LITTLE TAILOR
more like toaster, am i right??
rating: 3
DAY 17, PART 2: A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT
skipping this one because it's just Gulliver's Travels and therefore not a fairytale my dear boy.
DAY 18, PART 1: THE PRINCESS ON THE GLASS HILL
what if your name was "cinderlad"?
just something to think about.
rating: 2.5
DAY 18, PART 2: THE STORY OR PRINCE AHMED AND THE FAIRY PARIBANOU
this story is THIRTY. PAGES. LONG. and somehow that long-ass title isn't even 1 of them.
all that, and i really couldn't tell you what made it different from the 5-pagers.
rating: 3
DAY 19, PART 1: THE HISTORY OF JACK THE GIANT-KILLER
much more badass title than "jack and the beanstalk." which i guess make sense because there's no beanstalk in this. just a kid who's really into killing giants.
rating: 2.5
DAY 19, PART 2: THE BLACK BULL OF NORWAY
this one is inexplicably written in a different dialect than any other one. the kind of english where it looks like you're just making up how to spell words. definitely impacted my enjoyment.
rating: 2
DAY 19, PART 3: THE RED ETIN
going to finish this out today! aaaand i just hit the word count so time to trim.
this is in the same style as the last one (which i have realized is Old-Timey Scottish), so a soft no from me.
rating: 2.5
OVERALL
i will always have a soft spot in my heart for this book, but it is truly not as good as i remember it being. and also is all over the place.
but still. nostalgia is a powerful thing.
rating: 3.5
May 16, 2013
I always loved fairytales when I was a little kid––and no, not the silly watered-down ones. I liked the real, hardcore shit. The fairytales where everyone dies. Those are the good ones. Those Disney princess movies always bored me. (Except I loved Beauty and the Beast, because Belle isn't a dumbass and she reads a lot––like meeee!)
Anyway, if I recall correctly, I had at least one of Andrew Lang's fairytale collections when I was a kid … maybe a couple of them. Then, this past month, I had an assignment for my drawing class to illustrate a story. I immediately started remembering all these crazy fairytales I had read as a kid, and started to look them up. I stumbled upon Lang's collections again, and discovered that they were available on Amazon as free ebooks! Yay! So naturally, I downloaded them all (I think there were only two that weren't free on Amazon, but those two were free on Project Gutenberg, SOOO.)
(Side note: I ended up illustrating a Norwegian fairytale called "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and you can see my illustrations here.)
Anyway, I got caught up in reading these fairytales and read the whole Blue Fairy Book. There were a lot of fairytales I'd forgotten and remembered again, some I'd never heard of, and a lot that I'd heard before but which were different versions than what I was familiar with.
For example … DID YOU KNOW there's a version of Sleeping Beauty in which, after they get married and all that jazz, the prince's mother is an evil ogress who tries to eat Sleeping Beauty and her children? True facts! Oh, and then she makes this giant pot of like snakes and crocodiles and shit that she's going to put Sleeping Beauty and the kids into, and then the prince walks in and he's like, "Mom, what the fuck are you doing?" and she's like "Uh … um … How do I cover this up." So she just jumps into the pot herself and gets eaten alive. Yup.
Anyway, a lot of these fairytales just had total WTF moments.
"The first thing she did when she reached her room was to throw the cabbage out of the window. But she was very much surprised to hear an odd little voice cry out: "Oh! I am half killed!" and could no tell where it came from, because cabbages do not generally speak."
… Like that.
Also sometimes the old timey language could have some hilarious results.
"There was a miller who left no more estate to the three sons he had than his mill, his ass, and his cat."
"Here, son. You get my cat. Other son, here's my mill. And third son … you just get MY ASS."
"Oh, thanks Dad."
HOHOHO.
Also, of course, the word "gay" had a different connotation back then.
- "He was young, and gay, and handsome …"
- "Then he dressed himself carefully in rich brocade, with scarlet and white plumes, and threw a splendid embroidered scarf over his shoulder, and, looking as gay and as graceful as possible, he presented himself at the door of the palace …"
Ha. Haha. Anyway …
There are some pretty sexist moments. I guess that's to be expected because of the time period in which these stories were created. But still.
"She fainted away, for this is the first expedient almost all women find in such cases."
And a lot of super violent things just happen out of the blue.
"She had picked up a knife and cut her head off in an instant."
Oh yeah, also for some reason the first five chapters of Gulliver's Travels were in this book. And I'm like … uh, that's not a fairytale. So. What the hell. Also the Greek myth about Perseus was in here, except all the names were changed. So that was odd.
Anyway … the point is, fairytales are crazy and weird and I love them. The end.
Anyway, if I recall correctly, I had at least one of Andrew Lang's fairytale collections when I was a kid … maybe a couple of them. Then, this past month, I had an assignment for my drawing class to illustrate a story. I immediately started remembering all these crazy fairytales I had read as a kid, and started to look them up. I stumbled upon Lang's collections again, and discovered that they were available on Amazon as free ebooks! Yay! So naturally, I downloaded them all (I think there were only two that weren't free on Amazon, but those two were free on Project Gutenberg, SOOO.)
(Side note: I ended up illustrating a Norwegian fairytale called "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and you can see my illustrations here.)
Anyway, I got caught up in reading these fairytales and read the whole Blue Fairy Book. There were a lot of fairytales I'd forgotten and remembered again, some I'd never heard of, and a lot that I'd heard before but which were different versions than what I was familiar with.
For example … DID YOU KNOW there's a version of Sleeping Beauty in which, after they get married and all that jazz, the prince's mother is an evil ogress who tries to eat Sleeping Beauty and her children? True facts! Oh, and then she makes this giant pot of like snakes and crocodiles and shit that she's going to put Sleeping Beauty and the kids into, and then the prince walks in and he's like, "Mom, what the fuck are you doing?" and she's like "Uh … um … How do I cover this up." So she just jumps into the pot herself and gets eaten alive. Yup.
Anyway, a lot of these fairytales just had total WTF moments.
"The first thing she did when she reached her room was to throw the cabbage out of the window. But she was very much surprised to hear an odd little voice cry out: "Oh! I am half killed!" and could no tell where it came from, because cabbages do not generally speak."
… Like that.
Also sometimes the old timey language could have some hilarious results.
"There was a miller who left no more estate to the three sons he had than his mill, his ass, and his cat."
"Here, son. You get my cat. Other son, here's my mill. And third son … you just get MY ASS."
"Oh, thanks Dad."
HOHOHO.
Also, of course, the word "gay" had a different connotation back then.
- "He was young, and gay, and handsome …"
- "Then he dressed himself carefully in rich brocade, with scarlet and white plumes, and threw a splendid embroidered scarf over his shoulder, and, looking as gay and as graceful as possible, he presented himself at the door of the palace …"
Ha. Haha. Anyway …
There are some pretty sexist moments. I guess that's to be expected because of the time period in which these stories were created. But still.
"She fainted away, for this is the first expedient almost all women find in such cases."
And a lot of super violent things just happen out of the blue.
"She had picked up a knife and cut her head off in an instant."
Oh yeah, also for some reason the first five chapters of Gulliver's Travels were in this book. And I'm like … uh, that's not a fairytale. So. What the hell. Also the Greek myth about Perseus was in here, except all the names were changed. So that was odd.
Anyway … the point is, fairytales are crazy and weird and I love them. The end.
March 13, 2021
Would've been much better if this edition had illustrations, too.
August 18, 2016
I can't believe the level of nostalgia this book created. Not every story is equally memorable, but the ones that lingered over decades (yes, plural!) in my mind make this worth every star.
February 6, 2012
Lang wrote some of the stories, but he largely edited this collection. Like the Grimms, but far more honest, Lang used translations provided by his wife and other women (he thanks the women in his introduction, gives credit to original sources at the end of the tales).
It makes this collection, the first, rather interesting. By and large, the stories are mostly from the Grimms and French Salons. They include well known favorites like "Cinderella" but also lesser known ones such as "The Yellow Dwarf".
Perhaps what is refreshing or even heartening is the lack of white wash that the tales have. True, in relating the story of Perseus, Lang, who wrote the adaption, avoids the tricky question of Zeus as dad, but he does leave in the idea of Sunlight. The ending to two tales, "The Yellow Dwarf" and "The Ram" are kept intact. Was this Lang's doing or the women who worked the stories?
The only tale that feels out of place is Gulliver. In many ways, Lang has kept the original intentions far clearer than the Grimms.
It makes this collection, the first, rather interesting. By and large, the stories are mostly from the Grimms and French Salons. They include well known favorites like "Cinderella" but also lesser known ones such as "The Yellow Dwarf".
Perhaps what is refreshing or even heartening is the lack of white wash that the tales have. True, in relating the story of Perseus, Lang, who wrote the adaption, avoids the tricky question of Zeus as dad, but he does leave in the idea of Sunlight. The ending to two tales, "The Yellow Dwarf" and "The Ram" are kept intact. Was this Lang's doing or the women who worked the stories?
The only tale that feels out of place is Gulliver. In many ways, Lang has kept the original intentions far clearer than the Grimms.
May 6, 2018
What I love most about this book is that they are “non-Disney” endings. We all enjoy discussing them, whether bizarre or as we expected. My son (7) and I have enjoyed taking turns reading this aloud to each other all year. We picked up the Red Fairy Book too because we enjoyed this one so much.
November 21, 2011
From the famed The Blue Fairy Book, I learned that:
1. If you are a girl, and you are "beautiful", so amazingly pretty that sometimes, there are just no words to describe you, you might just survive whatever is coming at you next, because
2. The villains can never defeat the good, because someway or other, there will always, out of the blue, and completely deus ex machina-like, pop out these magical items that might just save the beautiful girl's ass(oops, I mean, her cute behind).
3. You just have to be really really beautiful. That's it.
4. If you asked a stranger to describe you, and he/she doesn't see fit to use the word "beautiful", you're screwed. For life.
5. Only the royalty are worth talking about.
Okay, to be honest, it's been a while since I read the ebook of this. I did like revisiting some tales I read as a child, but these were so different from what I had read that I found them tasteless, and abrupt. Many times I was offended by the very anti-feminist aspect of the stories, how the females always swooned, always submitted. I mean, I'm fine if they let the men do the dirty work (hehe), but the way it was portrayed was just really.. I don't know how to put it. But I didn't like it.
It's a book that I suppose, you may read to pass the time idly. But let's just say that 1. fairytales have come a long way to what we know and read as children. This journey in time is not in vain; maybe stick to the versions you are familiar with?, and 2. there are better books to read.
1. If you are a girl, and you are "beautiful", so amazingly pretty that sometimes, there are just no words to describe you, you might just survive whatever is coming at you next, because
2. The villains can never defeat the good, because someway or other, there will always, out of the blue, and completely deus ex machina-like, pop out these magical items that might just save the beautiful girl's ass(oops, I mean, her cute behind).
3. You just have to be really really beautiful. That's it.
4. If you asked a stranger to describe you, and he/she doesn't see fit to use the word "beautiful", you're screwed. For life.
5. Only the royalty are worth talking about.
Okay, to be honest, it's been a while since I read the ebook of this. I did like revisiting some tales I read as a child, but these were so different from what I had read that I found them tasteless, and abrupt. Many times I was offended by the very anti-feminist aspect of the stories, how the females always swooned, always submitted. I mean, I'm fine if they let the men do the dirty work (hehe), but the way it was portrayed was just really.. I don't know how to put it. But I didn't like it.
It's a book that I suppose, you may read to pass the time idly. But let's just say that 1. fairytales have come a long way to what we know and read as children. This journey in time is not in vain; maybe stick to the versions you are familiar with?, and 2. there are better books to read.
October 26, 2017
This collection contains many classic fairy tales and only a few that were new to me. Some stories are better than others, but mostly good. I was pleased to recognise some of the stories that I remembered from my childhood and that I had forgotten (Toads and Diamonds, Trusty John, The story of the prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou).
Since the tales seem to be quite long, one hopes the littlies will have the patience to listen to them till the end … or fall asleep, which isn’t a bad outcome either :)
Since the tales seem to be quite long, one hopes the littlies will have the patience to listen to them till the end … or fall asleep, which isn’t a bad outcome either :)
January 29, 2018
Thirty-seven stories which vary in length and enjoyability.
It was a fun read, I wouldn't read some of the stories to my nephews or my kids in the future.
It was a fun read, I wouldn't read some of the stories to my nephews or my kids in the future.
March 23, 2021
Delightful fairytales for all ages.
January 24, 2024
Fairy tales, in their original forms, are so weird. I never understand why some have the ‘good’ guys winning or the ‘villains’ avoiding consequences. I still find them entertaining to read though.
I enjoyed reading through this collection and discovering ones I didn’t know.
I enjoyed reading through this collection and discovering ones I didn’t know.
May 1, 2012
"She lives in a castle which lies east of the sun and west of the moon..."
Of all the fairy book spectrum, I'm glad I started with blue. More than a few old favourites in here, in particular the stories East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and Beauty and the Beast. It's lovely regardless, I think, to fall every now and then into a world where, even before first sight, people can fall so deeply in love that they can't eat or drink and where disgruntled witches curse you never to be happy until you discover your nose is too long for your face.
The Blue Fairy Book contains 37 stories, from a range of different sources. Be warned that not all have the happy endings you may have grown up hearing.
Then again, some end even more happily.
Whatever the ending, it's a great collection. Particularly good if you need something you can just dip in and out of, but at the same time you have the compulsive need to see story straight through to it's end, sleep be damned.
"And in despair he began to tell the Beast all his misfortunes, and the reason of his journey, not forgetting to mention Beauty's request..."
Of all the fairy book spectrum, I'm glad I started with blue. More than a few old favourites in here, in particular the stories East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and Beauty and the Beast. It's lovely regardless, I think, to fall every now and then into a world where, even before first sight, people can fall so deeply in love that they can't eat or drink and where disgruntled witches curse you never to be happy until you discover your nose is too long for your face.
The Blue Fairy Book contains 37 stories, from a range of different sources. Be warned that not all have the happy endings you may have grown up hearing.
Then again, some end even more happily.
Whatever the ending, it's a great collection. Particularly good if you need something you can just dip in and out of, but at the same time you have the compulsive need to see story straight through to it's end, sleep be damned.
"And in despair he began to tell the Beast all his misfortunes, and the reason of his journey, not forgetting to mention Beauty's request..."
December 12, 2010
Hmmm. I loved this book and fairy tales in general when I was a kid bur retracing them only makes me a little sad at the realization that they are pretty much tales of horrible family betrayal and that the real moral of many of them is that as long as you are the most beautiful princess and the youngest then it will probably turn out ok.
Read
October 8, 2021revisiting childhood favourites
March 6, 2018
Some of these are familiar - Red Riding Hood suffers a brutal end, Rumpelstiltskin gets ripped off again, Cinderella earns her name by cleaning out the chimney and having dainty feet, but Jack and the Giant-killer makes you wonder how we got the modern day Jack and the Beanstalk. Toss in a sedate and castle-heavy Aladdin and it just doesn't hold as much charm. The Story of Pretty Goldilocks is definitely not the version with three bears and porridge.
The Bronze Ring is long-winded, bizarre, all over the place (an island of mice too? really?) and dull-witted princess wife. Prince Hyacinth - A story that starts off with a bizarre curse test with a poor cat's tale, but then becomes a hilarious and bizarre Long Nose story. "How stupid people are not to see their own faults." Unfortunately it is also much too long - there's only so much that can stay interesting about such a long nose on the prince's travels.East of the Sun and West of the Moon - Too long as well, ended up drifting through this one.
The Yellow Dwarf is also incredibly long for a fairy tale but was a highlight of the group and one of the best.
I think I prefer my fairy tales shorter and to the point - some of these that went on too long seemed like they were ending the moral point and focus of the story, but then instead kept going with a new story in one, so that it got kind of old.
The audiobook version had different speakers - my favorite was the man who read aloud The Yellow Dwarf (impressive singing voice too, fella), which may be why I enjoyed that one so much. It was also a new to me tale and stayed interesting enough.
The Bronze Ring is long-winded, bizarre, all over the place (an island of mice too? really?) and dull-witted princess wife. Prince Hyacinth - A story that starts off with a bizarre curse test with a poor cat's tale, but then becomes a hilarious and bizarre Long Nose story. "How stupid people are not to see their own faults." Unfortunately it is also much too long - there's only so much that can stay interesting about such a long nose on the prince's travels.East of the Sun and West of the Moon - Too long as well, ended up drifting through this one.
The Yellow Dwarf is also incredibly long for a fairy tale but was a highlight of the group and one of the best.
I think I prefer my fairy tales shorter and to the point - some of these that went on too long seemed like they were ending the moral point and focus of the story, but then instead kept going with a new story in one, so that it got kind of old.
The audiobook version had different speakers - my favorite was the man who read aloud The Yellow Dwarf (impressive singing voice too, fella), which may be why I enjoyed that one so much. It was also a new to me tale and stayed interesting enough.
August 10, 2017
It would appear that Lang compiled these stories "as is" without any editing. Some were very good and some were very bad. It didn't help that the narrator of my audiobook version got very screechy with some of her voices.
Still, it was a fascinating look at some of the original versions of famous tales. In this book's version of Sleeping Beauty, she and the prince had to hide their kids from his mother who was an ogre who loved to eat children. (!) In Red Riding Hood no hunter comes in to save the day. And there's lots of blood in the Bluebeard story. "Miranda" was a retelling of the Beauty and Beast story, but the sheep/beast dies. Then there was another story that combined elements of Tom Thumb, Hansel and Gretel and Jack and the Beanstalk all in one. It was a very mixed bag and I would recommend reading rather than listening so that you can skim the less savory stories.
Lang compiled MANY fairy tale books. The classic favorites in this one are Beauty and the Beast, Dick Whittington and His Cat, Aladdin, Snow White and Rose Red, and Toads and Diamonds.
Still, it was a fascinating look at some of the original versions of famous tales. In this book's version of Sleeping Beauty, she and the prince had to hide their kids from his mother who was an ogre who loved to eat children. (!) In Red Riding Hood no hunter comes in to save the day. And there's lots of blood in the Bluebeard story. "Miranda" was a retelling of the Beauty and Beast story, but the sheep/beast dies. Then there was another story that combined elements of Tom Thumb, Hansel and Gretel and Jack and the Beanstalk all in one. It was a very mixed bag and I would recommend reading rather than listening so that you can skim the less savory stories.
Lang compiled MANY fairy tale books. The classic favorites in this one are Beauty and the Beast, Dick Whittington and His Cat, Aladdin, Snow White and Rose Red, and Toads and Diamonds.
October 18, 2015
Haha! These are great! Creepy and funny and gruesome. These ARE your grandmother's fairytales! HeeHeeHee!
Read
March 22, 2023Hmmmmmm …. I guess I only like Disney fairytales. 😂
April 17, 2024
Read via audiobook. This is not a rating on Lang's writing itself as he did not write these stories, but rather recorded and compiled them.
Overall, I really enjoyed the collection. It was a nice mix of classic tales as well as some lesser-known ones.
In terms of the audiobook, there were a few different narrators, and they were all pretty good.
Overall, I would recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys fairytales as I think it has a story for everyone.
Overall, I really enjoyed the collection. It was a nice mix of classic tales as well as some lesser-known ones.
In terms of the audiobook, there were a few different narrators, and they were all pretty good.
Overall, I would recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys fairytales as I think it has a story for everyone.
September 20, 2022
This collection includes many fairytales I've never heard of before, along with the most well-known and popular ones, like The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Puss in Boots, Hansel and Grettel, Blue Beard, Little Red Riding-Hood, Rumpelstiltzkin, East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
The edition I got is very beautiful - perhaps one of the best-made books I ever got. The paper and the binding are of tremendous quality; the cover and the spine are very decorative and pretty with their gold foiling. The book is illustrated, though not very heavily - there are 14 full-color illustrations on 400 pages. There are also some small black and white doodles here and there. It's lovely!
As for the content. I haven't read any fairytales since I was a kid. And I gotta say, fairy tales are weird man 😅 For example the reason why the whole plot takes place is that a princess exchanges a magical ring that can do practically anything for some red fish she sees someone carrying when she looks out the window. Like, why would anyone do that?!
Some tales were short (5 pages), some longer (20 pages). The longer ones didn't really have more world-building or character development, they were just more repetitive - a key event happens 3 times in almost the same way. Not all tales had a point or a moral, and not all of them had a happy ending. I didn't particularly enjoy it, I was mostly bored really. What I found the most interesting was when a certain plot device was used in several fairytales, and you can tell it's been transformed with time.
In conclusion, I won't read any more fairytales. I'll continue to enjoy just the fairytale retellings.
July 22, 2012
I'm excited to be re-reading these!
I appear to have bookmarked (on my e-reader) the story of Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, perhaps because the female Fairy has a large role. In fact, I had sort of forgotten what a significant percentage of traditional fairy tales - even western ones - have active women using agency. Hint: They're mostly not the ones that people today are aware of, because they're not the ones retold in the media.
Anyway, more of my bookmarks: I really liked The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, mainly because the ending is hilarious. I seem to have bookmarked a page out of Beauty and the Beast, but I'm not sure why. (I wish my Kindle would let me take notes on my bookmarks!) I bookmarked the Master-Maid, because it is all propelled by a woman, who saves the day several times. It's actually a fairly common style of story, wherein the maiden imprisoned by the bad guy takes a fancy to the hero and basically tells him how to do all the difficult tasks, or sometimes does them for him. I bookmarked Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, because it's an old favorite and also about a woman. The White Cat is another of the maiden-takes-a-fancy-to-our-hero-and-takes-care-of-all-the-difficult-tasks stories. I bookmarked a page toward the end of the Terrible Head, and I can't tell why, but the story is basically Perseus, which is interesting. I also appear to have bookmarked one of the last pages of Dick Whittington, and I'm also not sure why. I also bookmarked The Wonderful Sheep, which starts out like King Lear and then gets weirder, but I liked it, even though there's a truly horrible scene wherein Princess Miranda's monkey, dog, and servant all commit suicide on her behalf. The Forty Thieves was another good one, because it's the slave Morgiana who saves the day several times by being fifty times smarter and tougher than everyone else. I also liked Prince Achmed and the Fairy Paribanou, which also falls into that one category of fairy tale, and also has a neat twist (towards the beginning!) wherein our hero marries the awesome fairy instead of the lovely princess. And of course I've always liked The Princess On the Glass Hill, just because. And there's the bonus delight of East of the Sun West of the Moon, which has been retold several times recently in YA fantasy novels, most notably East by Edith Pattou.
I'm looking forward to the rest of these :)
I appear to have bookmarked (on my e-reader) the story of Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess, perhaps because the female Fairy has a large role. In fact, I had sort of forgotten what a significant percentage of traditional fairy tales - even western ones - have active women using agency. Hint: They're mostly not the ones that people today are aware of, because they're not the ones retold in the media.
Anyway, more of my bookmarks: I really liked The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, mainly because the ending is hilarious. I seem to have bookmarked a page out of Beauty and the Beast, but I'm not sure why. (I wish my Kindle would let me take notes on my bookmarks!) I bookmarked the Master-Maid, because it is all propelled by a woman, who saves the day several times. It's actually a fairly common style of story, wherein the maiden imprisoned by the bad guy takes a fancy to the hero and basically tells him how to do all the difficult tasks, or sometimes does them for him. I bookmarked Felicia and the Pot of Pinks, because it's an old favorite and also about a woman. The White Cat is another of the maiden-takes-a-fancy-to-our-hero-and-takes-care-of-all-the-difficult-tasks stories. I bookmarked a page toward the end of the Terrible Head, and I can't tell why, but the story is basically Perseus, which is interesting. I also appear to have bookmarked one of the last pages of Dick Whittington, and I'm also not sure why. I also bookmarked The Wonderful Sheep, which starts out like King Lear and then gets weirder, but I liked it, even though there's a truly horrible scene wherein Princess Miranda's monkey, dog, and servant all commit suicide on her behalf. The Forty Thieves was another good one, because it's the slave Morgiana who saves the day several times by being fifty times smarter and tougher than everyone else. I also liked Prince Achmed and the Fairy Paribanou, which also falls into that one category of fairy tale, and also has a neat twist (towards the beginning!) wherein our hero marries the awesome fairy instead of the lovely princess. And of course I've always liked The Princess On the Glass Hill, just because. And there's the bonus delight of East of the Sun West of the Moon, which has been retold several times recently in YA fantasy novels, most notably East by Edith Pattou.
I'm looking forward to the rest of these :)
July 4, 2017
I've been working my way through this for about five years. I'm sure I read it when I was younger, but fairy tales never get old for me. I mainly listened to it on my Kindle at night around bedtime, and that was a great format.
Fairy tales have some good lessons for the listener. Perseverance, doing good deeds for others, being clever, and to never underestimate one's circumstances. Poor people can become kings, queens, princes or princesses. They can also be disturbing in how children and many undeserving can be put into horrible situations, and blood is freely spilled. Not to mention, there's always some wicked person or being that is waiting to steal, kill or destroy.
The tales in this volume nearly span the globe. It does have some stories from Arabian Nights, and even a story from Gulliver's Travels (my least favorite in this volume.)
These are free on ebook, so definitely take advantage of the opportunity to read some of the seminal fairy tales that are much beloved by kids and former kids.
List of stories in this volume: (from Wikipedia)
The Bronze Ring
Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
The Yellow Dwarf
Little Red Riding Hood
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp
The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was
Rumpelstiltskin
Beauty and the Beast
The Master Maid
Why the Sea Is Salt
The Master Cat or Puss in Boots
Felicia and the Pot of Pinks
The White Cat
The Water-lily. The Gold-spinners
The Terrible Head
The Story of Pretty Goldilocks
The History of Whittington
The Wonderful Sheep
Little Thumb
The Forty Thieves
Hansel and Gretel
Snow-White and Rose-Red
The Goose-girl
Toads and Diamonds
Prince Darling
Blue Beard
Trusty John
The Brave Little Tailor
A Voyage to Lilliput
The Princess on the Glass Hill
The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou
The History of Jack the Giant-killer
The Black Bull of Norroway
The Red Etin
Fairy tales have some good lessons for the listener. Perseverance, doing good deeds for others, being clever, and to never underestimate one's circumstances. Poor people can become kings, queens, princes or princesses. They can also be disturbing in how children and many undeserving can be put into horrible situations, and blood is freely spilled. Not to mention, there's always some wicked person or being that is waiting to steal, kill or destroy.
The tales in this volume nearly span the globe. It does have some stories from Arabian Nights, and even a story from Gulliver's Travels (my least favorite in this volume.)
These are free on ebook, so definitely take advantage of the opportunity to read some of the seminal fairy tales that are much beloved by kids and former kids.
List of stories in this volume: (from Wikipedia)
The Bronze Ring
Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
The Yellow Dwarf
Little Red Riding Hood
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp
The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was
Rumpelstiltskin
Beauty and the Beast
The Master Maid
Why the Sea Is Salt
The Master Cat or Puss in Boots
Felicia and the Pot of Pinks
The White Cat
The Water-lily. The Gold-spinners
The Terrible Head
The Story of Pretty Goldilocks
The History of Whittington
The Wonderful Sheep
Little Thumb
The Forty Thieves
Hansel and Gretel
Snow-White and Rose-Red
The Goose-girl
Toads and Diamonds
Prince Darling
Blue Beard
Trusty John
The Brave Little Tailor
A Voyage to Lilliput
The Princess on the Glass Hill
The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou
The History of Jack the Giant-killer
The Black Bull of Norroway
The Red Etin
December 19, 2015
3 stars for the audiobook; 4 stars for the book itself. See my review of the Kindle edition for a brief review of the book.
While I thought that Angele Masters did some very good voices (and a very good Scots accent for the last two tales), there were recurring mouth sounds (mostly sounds of swallowing) that put me off. Glad that I picked up this audiobook as a free Whispersync deal, but that brings me to another problem I had with this audiobook. It didn't actually sync with the Kindle book properly -- it worked okay for a while but towards the end, I couldn't get it to play while reading the text.
While I thought that Angele Masters did some very good voices (and a very good Scots accent for the last two tales), there were recurring mouth sounds (mostly sounds of swallowing) that put me off. Glad that I picked up this audiobook as a free Whispersync deal, but that brings me to another problem I had with this audiobook. It didn't actually sync with the Kindle book properly -- it worked okay for a while but towards the end, I couldn't get it to play while reading the text.
June 30, 2009
I wrote a huge term paper about Andrew Lang's fairy tales and Jungian psychology in college. These fairy tales are awesome!
November 29, 2021
It was a really good book, I really enjoyed it.
June 2, 2022
Classic tales and some not so well known. Do not expect the Disney versions.
June 13, 2023
We had a collection of Disney LPs for children when I was a kid and several of the fairy tales from this book were acted out by Mickey, Goofy and Donald Duck. I still hear Mickey's laugh when someone mentions "The Brave Little Tailor."
May 10, 2018
We completed this with the Memoria Press literature guide (which I highly recommend!). My son enjoyed the stories, but said they were a little strange.
December 22, 2020
It was very fun to listen to all these different fairytales (with which I had varying levels of familiarity)! Like is often the case with collections of stories I liked some more than others.
February 26, 2020
I’m in serious need of some fairy stories and when I read a review of one of the books in this series, by a goodreads friend, I jumped right in (thank you Amalia). This is the first book in the series and totally obliging. Not colorful Walt Disney/Pixar style, but darker and appealing to my adult palate. The stories are short and quick reads. The library copy will not work with my younger grandchildren since the only pictures are those that surface in my mind while reading. This first book has both familiar stories and many stories I've never read. While reading, I noticed that the entire Coloured Fairy Book Collection can be downloaded from Gutenberg Project. There are six beautiful illustrations that appear to be in the public domain in the full collection (I could not find illustrations in any of the single downloadable books). Kindle offers some of the books for free and some for 99 cents and there are some newer editions (presumably later editions with illustrations) for sale at higher prices on Amazon. For the listeners among us, I noticed one Audible (there are probably more) - if only a professional reader do. Librivox offers the entire project and many others by Lang for free, narrated by volunteers. I noticed that I am familiar with some of the narrators’ names who have appealed to me in the past. In general, this was a totally delightful experience and I look forward to reading more in this series.
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