What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fairy Books - Complete Series (Illustrated Edition): 400+ Tales in One Edition
Fairy tales are the oldest stories in the world. They were first made by adults who were childlike for their own amusement, and so they amuse children still, and also grown-up people who have not forgotten how they once were children. The stories in these books are borrowed from many countries; some are French, some German, some Russian, some Italian, some Scottish, some English, one Chinese. However much these nations differ about trifles, they all agree in liking fairy tales. The reason, no doubt, is that men were much like children in their minds long ago, long, long ago, and so before they took to writing newspapers, and sermons, and novels, and long poems, they told each other stories, such as you read in the fairy books. They believed that witches could turn people into beasts, that beasts could speak, that magic rings could make their owners invisible, and all the other wonders in the stories. Then, as the world became grown-up, the fairy tales which were not written down would have been quite forgotten but that the old grannies remembered them, and told them to the little grandchildren: and when they, in their turn, became grannies, they remembered them, nd told them also. In this way these tales are older than reading and writing, far older than printing. (Unexpurgated edition of Andrew Lang's Complete "Fairy Book" Series, including The Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Pink, Grey, Violet, Crimson, Brown, Orange, Olive, and Lilac Fairy Books. "The Rose Fairy Book" is not included in this anthology, because the stories it contains can be found in the Grey, Brown, Pink, Lilac and Orange Fairy Books.)
4478 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1980
387 people are currently reading
1295 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Lang
3,665 books551 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 27, 2014
This was a marathon read! It earns 3 stars for being an entertaining collection: two stars are lost for odd translation choices (some parts of stories were clearly omitted, perhaps for length, leading to weird gaps in the narrative) and for the repetition of some tales (not simply due to cultures having close versions of the same story, either). Also, as you would expect from a collection of fairy tales, there's plenty of racism, sexism, and misogyny to go around, so be forewarned if you pick this up!
I am glad I read all of Lang's fairy books, and if you decide to do the same, the kindle version will certainly be lighter than the paper one! Do note, though, that (as with many free kindle books) there are formatting problems that will make this collection difficult to navigate at times.
Major lessons:
1. Always trust the talking magic sheep.
2. Old women in the woods are always witches. As to whether they're good or bad: it's about 50-50 odds.
3. If you catch a fancy fish, throw it back. It may help you in the future. But do not, under any circumstances, make a wish on it.
4. Listen to your talking horse. It's smarter than you, and for pete's sake it's a talking horse.
5. Monkeys: Nature's Jerks.
6. Do not tell anyone that your animal husband is secretly a human, or vice versa.
7. If your parents tell you not to go near the spooky enchanted lake maybe DON'T GO NEAR THE SPOOKY ENCHANTED LAKE.
I am glad I read all of Lang's fairy books, and if you decide to do the same, the kindle version will certainly be lighter than the paper one! Do note, though, that (as with many free kindle books) there are formatting problems that will make this collection difficult to navigate at times.
Major lessons:
1. Always trust the talking magic sheep.
2. Old women in the woods are always witches. As to whether they're good or bad: it's about 50-50 odds.
3. If you catch a fancy fish, throw it back. It may help you in the future. But do not, under any circumstances, make a wish on it.
4. Listen to your talking horse. It's smarter than you, and for pete's sake it's a talking horse.
5. Monkeys: Nature's Jerks.
6. Do not tell anyone that your animal husband is secretly a human, or vice versa.
7. If your parents tell you not to go near the spooky enchanted lake maybe DON'T GO NEAR THE SPOOKY ENCHANTED LAKE.
August 25, 2022
I rerated this series from a four to a five because at the time I read it, and it was sometime in my youth, the books were amazing to me.
I read and reread all 12 books in Andrew Lang's fairy book series in my exceedingly distant youth. I didn't actually realize there were a total of 12 books. I remembered them by their theme of different colors (which I recalled after reviewing the color themed mysteries about Travis McGee by John D. MacDonald). I remember my satisfaction with finding what seemed to be then a wealth of books in a series at the public library (1960s in Hawaii?). These were classic and completely accessible folk tales and fairy tales Lang collected from all over the world, most of which seemed to come from Europe. This was the precursor, perhaps, for my subsequent fascination with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I always did like series of books, though, from Beverly Cleary and Eleanor Cameron to Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, to Perry Mason, and then to Agatha Christie and beyond.
I read and reread all 12 books in Andrew Lang's fairy book series in my exceedingly distant youth. I didn't actually realize there were a total of 12 books. I remembered them by their theme of different colors (which I recalled after reviewing the color themed mysteries about Travis McGee by John D. MacDonald). I remember my satisfaction with finding what seemed to be then a wealth of books in a series at the public library (1960s in Hawaii?). These were classic and completely accessible folk tales and fairy tales Lang collected from all over the world, most of which seemed to come from Europe. This was the precursor, perhaps, for my subsequent fascination with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I always did like series of books, though, from Beverly Cleary and Eleanor Cameron to Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, to Perry Mason, and then to Agatha Christie and beyond.
February 9, 2008
The publishing of this is truly dreadful. There is no complete table of contents, no clear divisions between stories, and the cover stock is very shabby. A basic rule of desktop publishing is to use similar graphic images throughout a piece. The cover and spine of this book look like stock clip art and a stock photo, I could have done better. I do not understand why they did not use one of the original illustrations used in the Andrew Lang series of books. To be honest, I only bought this because I wanted all the stories in one volume. Now, I wish I had sprung for buying each volume individually.
April 2, 2009
this series reminds me of the bookmobile that used to make its weekly stop at our school parking lot. i read one volume each week during the spring of my 6th grade school year. it was a fun way to pass away the afternoons.
because this collection is so comprehensive, the story plots/characters/resolutions heavily overlapped, but the illustrations are inviting enough to keep you engaged. can't say i had a favorite volume but my favorite color was pink...
because this collection is so comprehensive, the story plots/characters/resolutions heavily overlapped, but the illustrations are inviting enough to keep you engaged. can't say i had a favorite volume but my favorite color was pink...
May 7, 2012
Lang collected fairy tales from all over the world, some of which are well-known and favorites of mine growing up, others which were more obscure and new to me. The wealth of stories in these books is amazing. I've always loved fairy tales, and to be able to read them all in one place is wonderful. This will definitely be brought out on a regular basis so I can revisit favorite tales.
June 16, 2023
These are wonderful! Highly recommended for those who delight in folk tales, Grimm Classics, dark tales or inspired whimsy. Really these are worlds apart from modern fiction. If you are not a fan of literature but would like to be step in to these. Each book is packed with tales. Read a few on a plane ride or one a week to see where they take you. Enjoy!
July 7, 2023
We have the original pink book, passed down. Published in 1910.
August 6, 2023
I only read them to help me sleep.
July 19, 2013
The Blue Fairy Book (finished 05/03/10)
I'd been recommended Lang's retold fairy tales for years, but never read them until now. They're wonderful! I don't know why I waited--I like them enough that now I read at least one tale every night before bed. His tone and language are comfortably familiar, but still carry the authority needed for these kinds of fairy tales. The only story I disliked was "Gulliver's Travels"--even Lang's much abridged retelling couldn't save that story for me, good as it was--but I don't count that personal bias against The Blue Fairy Book itself. I heartily recommend Lang's work to anyone who likes fairy tales, and anyone looking to get their feet wet!
I'd been recommended Lang's retold fairy tales for years, but never read them until now. They're wonderful! I don't know why I waited--I like them enough that now I read at least one tale every night before bed. His tone and language are comfortably familiar, but still carry the authority needed for these kinds of fairy tales. The only story I disliked was "Gulliver's Travels"--even Lang's much abridged retelling couldn't save that story for me, good as it was--but I don't count that personal bias against The Blue Fairy Book itself. I heartily recommend Lang's work to anyone who likes fairy tales, and anyone looking to get their feet wet!
November 5, 2012
A huge, fantastic collection of stories. Some of these are pretty short so it's good for a quick decompressing read before bed. The ebook format was cheap and this was a great buy. Highly recommended.
May 25, 2008
I read each of these separately, but have amalgated my review of them all here.
March 8, 2008
i love fairy tales!
January 23, 2015
loved all those fairy tales which are unknown to me. great read
June 4, 2012
Love all the Fairy books! :)
October 10, 2012
some short, and some not-so-short. Some familiar and some not-so-familiar fairy tales.
Good character sketches and simple lessons. Entertaining short story-style reading.
Good character sketches and simple lessons. Entertaining short story-style reading.
January 24, 2013
There was a year (I was in my twenties) when I read almost nothing but fairy tales. I went right through the rainbow of Andrew Lang.
July 14, 2014
✌️✌️I really need to read this book✌️✌️
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews