Rumpelstiltskin from The Blue Fairy Book, by Henry J. Ford
|
|
The Blue Fairy Book
The Red Fairy Book The Blue Poetry Book The Green Fairy Book The True Story Book The Yellow Fairy Book The Red True Story Book The Animal Story Book The Pink Fairy Book The Arabian Nights' Entertainments The Red Book of Animal Stories The Grey Fairy Book The Violet Fairy Book The Book of Romance The Crimson Fairy Book The Brown Fairy Book The Red Romance Book The Orange Fairy Book The Olive Fairy Book The Red Book of Heroes The Lilac Fairy Book The All Sorts of Stories Book The Book of Saints and Heroes The Strange Story Book |
|
Author | Andrew Lang |
---|---|
Illustrator | Henry J. Ford (and others) |
Language | English |
Genre | Fairy tales |
Published | 1889–1913 |
No. of books | 25 |
Andrew Lang's Fairy Books are a series of twenty-five collections of true and fictional stories for children, published between 1889 and 1913. The best known books of the series are the twelve collections of fairy tales, known as Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors. In all, the volumes feature 798 stories, besides the 153 poems in The Blue Poetry Book.
Andrew Lang (1844–1912) was a Scots poet, novelist, and literary critic. As acknowledged in the prefaces, although Lang himself made most of the selections, his wife and other translators did a large portion of the translating and retelling of the actual stories. Four of the later volumes (from 1908 to 1912) were published as by "Mrs. Lang".
According to Anita Silvey, "The irony of Lang's life and work is that although he wrote for a profession—literary criticism; fiction; poems; books and articles on anthropology, mythology, history, and travel ... he is best recognized for the works he did not write."
The twelve Coloured Fairy Books were illustrated by H. J. Ford (Henry Justice Ford), the first two volumes shared with G. P. Jacomb-Hood and Lancelot Speed respectively, the sequels alone. Several other volumes were illustrated by Ford. A. Wallis Mills also contributed some illustrations.
The most well-known volumes of the series are the twelve Fairy Books, each of which is distinguished by its own color. Although Lang did not collect any fairy tales himself from oral primary sources, only he and Madame d'Aulnoy (1651–1705) have collected tales from such a large variety of sources. These collections have been immensely influential; Lang gave many of the tales their first appearance in English. As acknowledged in the prefaces, although Lang himself made most of the selections, his wife and other translators did a large portion of the translating and retelling of the actual stories.