THE FAIRY BOOK. THE BEST POPULAR STORIES SELECTED AND RENDERED ANEW.

by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, John Halifax

A preface is usually an excrescence on a good book, and a vain apology for a worthless one; but, in the present instance, a few explanatory words seem necessary. This is meant to be the best collection attainable of that delight of all children, and of many grown people who retain the child-heart still--the old-fashioned, time-honored classic Fairy-tale. It has been compiled from all sources--far-off and familiar; when familiar, the stories have been traced with care to their original form, which, if foreign, has been retranslated, condensed, and in any other needful way made suitable for modern British children. Perrault, Madame d'Aulnois, and Grimm have thus been laid under contribution. Where it was not possible to get at the original of a tale, its various versions have been collated, compared, and combined; and in some instances, when this proved still unsatisfactory, the whole story has been written afresh. The few English fairy tales extant, such as _Jack the Giant Killer, Tom Thumb_, etc., whose authorship is lost in obscurity, but whose charming Saxon simplicity of style, and intense realism of narration, make for them an ever-green immortality--these have been left intact, for no later touch would improve them. All modern stories have been excluded. Of course, in fairy tales, instruction is not expected; we find in them only the rude moral of virtue rewarded and vice punished. But children will soon discover for themselves that in real life all beautiful people are not good, nor all ugly ones wicked; that every elder sister is not ungenerous, nor every stepmother cruel. And the tender baby-heart is often reached quite as soon by the fancy as by the reason. Nevertheless, without any direct appeal to conscience or morality, the Editor of this collection has been especially careful that there should be nothing in it which could really harm a child. She trusts that, whatever its defects, the Fairy Book will not deserve one criticism, almost the sharpest that can be given to any work--"that it would have been better if the author had taken more pains."

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1863

About the author

Dinah Maria Craik (born Dinah Maria Mulock, also often credited as Miss Mulock or Mrs. Craik) was an English novelist and poet. She was born at Stoke-on-Trent and brought up in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.

After the death of her mother in 1845, Dinah Maria Mulock settled in London about 1846. She was determined to obtain a livelihood by her pen, and, beginning with fiction for children, advanced steadily until placed in the front rank of the women novelists of her day. She is best known for the novel John Halifax, Gentleman (1856). She followed this with A Life for a Life (1859), which she considered to be the best of her novels, and several other works. She also published some poetry, narratives of tours in Ireland and Cornwall, and A Woman's Thoughts about Women (1858).

She married George Lillie Craik a partner with Alexander Macmillan in the publishing house of Macmillan & Company, and nephew of George Lillie Craik, in 1864. They adopted a foundling baby girl, Dorothy, in 1869.

At Shortlands, near Bromley, Kent, while in a period of preparation for Dorothy's wedding, she died of heart failure on 12 October 1887, aged 61. Her last words were reported to have been: "Oh, if I could live four weeks longer! but no matter, no matter!" Her final book, An Unknown Country, was published by Macmillan in 1887, the year of her death.

Reviews

[Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere)]

The book can be found on the Internet Archive here, in a version with Warwick Goble's illustrations.

[J. Boo]

Wikipedia: "British fairy tale collections were rare at the time; Dinah Craik's The Fairy Book (1869) was a lonely precedent [to Lang's Colored Fairy Books]"

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goble's illustrations are magical.

[Jesse Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite childhood book, I read a version that had belonged to my grandmother, who I never knew as she died when my dad was about 10 years old. I felt a link to her, reading her book.

[Beka · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing was nothing out of the ordinary, but the incredible illustrations made this a childhood standout.