The Luck of the Bean-Rows: A Fairy Tale for Lucky Children

by Charles Nodier

Excerpt: Once upon a time there was a man and his wife who were poor and very old. They had never had any children, and this was a great trouble to them, for they foresaw that in a few years more they would not be able to grow their beans and take them to market.
One day while they were weeding in their field (that with a little cabin was all they possessed - I wish owned as much!) - one day, I say, while they were getting rid of the weeds the old woman spied in a corner, where they grew thickest, a small bundle very carefully tied up; and what should she find in it but a lovely boy, eight or ten months old to look at, but quite two years in intelligence! He had been weaned; at all events he needed no pressing to partake of boiled beans, which he raised to his mouth very prettily.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1921

About the author

Jean Charles Emmanuel Nodier was a French author who introduced a younger generation of Romanticists to the conte fantastique, gothic literature, vampire tales, and the importance of dreams as part of literary creation, and whose career as a librarian is often underestimated by literary historians.

Reviews

[R.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Luck” was incredibly lucky.

I’m somewhere between 3.5 & 4 stars, because I don’t think I’d ever tell someone that they should read this for themselves, but it wasn’t an altogether unpleasant experience.