≡ Libro The Olive Fairy Book Complete Unabridged Andrew Lang H J Ford Books

The Olive Fairy Book Complete Unabridged Andrew Lang H J Ford Books

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The Olive Fairy Book Complete Unabridged Andrew Lang H J Ford Books

Many stories, although if one gets upset over archaic ideas and terminology ( "Arabs" and "Negroes" are both considered villians so if reading to children, you may want to edit that to say "an evil or cruel man" or "monster" or simply "villian") in order for modern children to understand. There is also great value in teaching about the horrible results of these archaic and misguided ideologies-ie; genocide, pogroms and propaganda fueling hatred of the "other". I myself am an avid reader and find that these are the best for me to read at night because they don't keep me awake because I know how they end and I'm not attached to the out come. Good books have kept me awake far too many nights, so now I read fairytales at bedtime. It is also interesting to how see the same base stories are played out in different cultures. The lady as a seal or swan, the man who forgets his love, the evil stepmother to the twins...so many different iterations. I have all the Lang Fairy Books and enjoy them a great deal.


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The Olive Fairy Book Complete Unabridged Andrew Lang H J Ford Books Reviews

In the late 19th century, historian, scholar, and anthropologist, Andrew Lang, began publishing collections of fairy tales from around the world. The first volume was `The Blue Fairy Book' published in 1887. Lang was not a true ethnologist, like the German Brothers Grimm. He was far more the `translator' than collector of tales from the source, stories transcribed from being told by people to whom the tales were passed down by word of mouth. In fact, many stories in his first volume, such as Rumpelstiltskin; Snow White; Sleeping Beauty; Cinderella; and Hansel and Gretel were translated from Grimm's books of fairy tales. Some of his `fairy tales' were even `copied from relatively recent fantasy fiction, such as A Voyage to Lilliput, the first of the four episodes in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
My inspiration for commenting Lang's series of fairy tale books is for the sheer quantity of tales, the wonderful woodcut illustrations, some few of which may have become almost as popular as the tales (although not quite in the same league as Sir John Tenniel's illustrations for Lewis Carroll's great fantasies), and the fact that I had these when I was young.
With twelve of these books, with between 30 and 36 stories in each book, this gives one about 400 different stories. If I were to recommend anything as standard equipment at a grandparents' house, it would be a complete set of these books.
Needless to say, there are a few `warnings' to accompany books assembled over 100 years ago. You will encounter a fair number of words with which even an adult may be unfamiliar, let alone a five year old. For example, on the second page of The Princess Mayblossom in The Red Fairy Book, a character puts sulfur in a witch's porridge. This requires at least three explanations. What is sulfur, what is porridge, and why is sulfur in porridge such a bad thing. More difficult still is when a prince entered the town on a white horse which `pranced and caracoled to the sound of the trumpets'. In 19th century London, caracoling (making half turns to the right and the left) was probably as common and as well known as `stepping on the gas' is today. But, if you're a grandparent, that's half the fun, explaining new words and ideas to the young-uns.
There is another `danger' which may require just a bit more explanation, although in today's world of crime dramas on TV, I'm not sure that most kids are already totally immune to being shocked by death and dead bodies. In these stories, lots of people and creatures get killed in very unpleasant ways, and lots of very good people and creatures suffer in very unpleasant ways. It's ironic that the critics in Lang's own time felt the stories were 'unreality, brutality, and escapism to be harmful for young readers, while holding that such stories were beneath the serious consideration of those of mature age'. The success of a whole library of Walt Disney feature length cartoons based on these stories is a testament to how well they work with children. But do be warned, Uncle Walt did clean things up a bit. Lang's versions hold back on very little that was ugly and unpleasant in some of these stories.
The down side to the great quantity of stories is that even when some come from very different parts of the world, there is a remarkable amount of overlap in theme, plot, and characters. But by the time you get to another story of a beautiful young girl mistreated by a stepmother, it will have been several month since you read Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper in The Blue Fairy Book. The other side of the coin is that you can play the game of trying to recall what that other story was with a similar theme.
There is one very big word of caution about buying these books through or a similar on line outlet. I stopped counting when I got to twelve different editions of The Blue Fairy Book, or a volume including several of these books. Not all of these editions have the original woodcuts and even worse, not all have a table of contents and introduction. The one publisher which has all twelve volumes is by Dover. Other publishers, such as Flying Chipmunk Publishing (yes, that's it's name) also have all the original illustrations, table of contents, and introduction, but I'm not certain that publisher has all twelve volumes. Dover most certainly does, as I just bought all twelve of them from .
While I suspect these stories may have been `old hat' for quite some time, it may be that with the popularity of Lord of the Rings, the Narnia stories, and the Harry Potter stories, all of which have their share of suffering and death, that these may be in for a revival. Again, the main attraction is that for relatively little money and space, Grammy and Grandad get a great resource for bonding with children.
“The Olive Fairy Book,” published in 1907, is the eleventh of twelve collected fairy story books that were researched, translated and compiled by Andrew Lang (1844-1912) and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang. Andrew Lang, a Scotsman, was a literary critic, novelist, poet, and a contributor to the field of anthropology.

The twenty-eight stories in this book come from the exotic traditions of from Turkey, India, Denmark, Armenia, the Sudan, and others. Included are “The Green Knight,” “The Diamond Cut Diamond,” The Silent Princess,” among others.

This was an enjoyable and easy-to-read book. The stories were interesting and held my interest, and I looked forward to reading each one. Not many endings were odd, nor were they predictable.
“The Green Fairy Book,” published in 1892, is the third of twelve collected fairy story books that were researched, translated and compiled by Andrew Lang (1844-1912) and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang, Andrew Lang, a Scotsman, was a literary critic, novelist, poet, and a contributor to the field of anthropology,

The sources for this book include those from Spanish and Chinese traditional stories.

Included are “The Enchanted Watch,” “Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle.” (my favorite in this collection), “The Blue Bird,” “The Story of Hok Lee and the Drawfs” – and much more! These are the refreshingly original versions, in all their straightforward, sometimes violent, glory. Not all fairy tales are the sappy sweet rewritten Disney rip-off versions; that’s phony.

Some of these stories have archaic writing styles, some are quick reads due to the brevity of the tale, and some just don’t make a lot of sense in the way they end. However, they all are delightful in their own ways

All in all, I do recommend this book for literary and psychological research and analysis, and just for the fun of it, if you are so inclined.
Many stories, although if one gets upset over archaic ideas and terminology ( "Arabs" and "Negroes" are both considered villians so if reading to children, you may want to edit that to say "an evil or cruel man" or "monster" or simply "villian") in order for modern children to understand. There is also great value in teaching about the horrible results of these archaic and misguided ideologies-ie; genocide, pogroms and propaganda fueling hatred of the "other". I myself am an avid reader and find that these are the best for me to read at night because they don't keep me awake because I know how they end and I'm not attached to the out come. Good books have kept me awake far too many nights, so now I read fairytales at bedtime. It is also interesting to how see the same base stories are played out in different cultures. The lady as a seal or swan, the man who forgets his love, the evil stepmother to the twins...so many different iterations. I have all the Lang Fairy Books and enjoy them a great deal.