Once upon a time …

Fairytales are a universal part of childhood. No matter what time or what place you grew up, you have at one point or another heard that classic phrase “once upon a time.” They are usually the first stories we ever hear or read. These types of tales set us up to understand the art of stories and storytelling, and they are certainly worth revisiting.

Here in The Blue Fairy Book, the first of Andrew Lang’s beloved collections of classic fairy stories, you will return to the tales you already know like “Beauty and the Beast” and “Rumpelstiltskin,” tales you maybe remember a bit different like “The Story of Pretty Goldilocks” and “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,” and some you may never have heard of like “The White Cat” and “Prince Darling.”

Lang is an author of multivolume history books about Scotland and English literature, and he is considered one of the top folklorists in England. In The Blue Fairy Book, he has compiled thirty-seven tales from Arabian Nights, Charles Perrault, The Brothers Grimm, Madame Leprince de Beaumont, and more, in a first-rate English language collection.

Full contents:

“The Bronze Ring”
“Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess”
“East of the Sun and West of the Moon”
“The Yellow Dwarf”
“Little Red Riding Hood”
“The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”
“Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper”
“Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp”
“The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was”
“Rumpelstiltskin”
“Beauty and the Beast”
“The Master-Maid”
“Why the Sea Is Salt”
“The Master Cat; Or, Puss in Boots”
“Felicia and the Pot of Pinks”
“The White Cat”
“The Water-Lily. The Gold-Spinners”
“The Terrible Head”
“The Story of Pretty Goldilocks”
“The History of Whittington”
“The Wonderful Sheep”
“Little Thumb”
“The Forty Thieves”
“Hansel and Gretel”
“Snow-White and Rose-Red”
“The Goose-Girl”
“Toads and Diamonds”
“Prince Darling”
“Blue Beard”
“Trusty John”
“The Brave Little Tailor”
“A Voyage to Lilliput”
“The Princess on the Glass Hill”
“The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou”
“The History of Jack the Giant-Killer”
“The Black Bull of Norroway”
“The Red Etin”