The Langs' Fairy Books


The Langs' Fairy Books are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and Leonora Blanche Lang, a married couple. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections of fairy tales also 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.
Leonora Blanche Lang was an English author, editor, and translator. Known to her family and friends as Nora, she assumed editorial control of the series in the 1890s, while her husband, Andrew Lang, a Scots poet, novelist, and literary critic, edited the series and wrote prefaces for its entire run.
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 authorship and translation of the Coloured Fairy Books is often and incorrectly attributed to Andrew Lang alone. Nora is not named on the front cover or spines of any of the Coloured Fairy Books, which all tout Andrew as their editor. However, as Andrew acknowledges in a preface to The Lilac Fairy Book, "The fairy books have been almost wholly the work of Mrs. Lang, who has translated and adapted them from the French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and other languages."
The 12 Coloured Fairy Books were illustrated by Henry Justice Ford, with credit for the first two volumes shared by G. P. Jacomb-Hood and Lancelot Speed, respectively. A. Wallis Mills also contributed some illustrations.

''The Fairy Books''

Origin and influence

The best-known volumes of the series are the 12 Fairy Books, each of which is distinguished by its own color. The Langs did not collect any fairy tales from oral primary sources, yet only they and Madame d'Aulnoy have collected tales from such a large variety of sources. These collections have been immensely influential; the Langs gave many of the tales their first appearance in English. Andrew selected the tales for the first four books, while Nora took over the series thereafter. She and other translators did a large portion of the translating and retelling of the actual stories.
Lang's urge to gather and publish fairy tales was rooted in his own experience with the folk and fairy tales of his home territory along the Anglo-Scottish border. British fairy tale collections were rare at the time; Dinah Craik's The Fairy Book was a lonely precedent. According to Roger Lancelyn Green, Lang "was fighting against the critics and educationists of the day" who judged the traditional tales' "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". Over a generation, Lang's books worked a revolution in this public perception.
The series was immensely popular, helped by Lang's reputation as a folklorist and by the packaging device of the uniform books. The series proved of great influence in children's literature, increasing the popularity of fairy tales over tales of real life. It inspired such imitators as English Fairy Tales and More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. Other followers included the American The Oak-Tree Fairy Book, The Elm-Tree Fairy Book, and The Fir-Tree Fairy Book series edited by Clifton Johnson, and the collections of Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith.

Books

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/503/503-h/503-h.htm#2H_4_0001 ''The [Blue Fairy Book'' (1889)]

The first edition consisted of 5,000 copies, which sold for 6 shillings each. The book assembled a wide range of tales, with seven from the Brothers Grimm, five from Madame d'Aulnoy, three from the Arabian Nights, and four Norwegian fairytales, among other sources. The Blue Fairy Book was the first volume in the series, and so it contains some of the best known tales, taken from a variety of sources.

  • "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"

    https://www.gutenberg.org/files/540/540-h/540-h.htm#2H_4_0002 ''The Red Fairy Book'' (1890)

The Red Fairy Book appeared at Christmas 1890 in a first printing of 10,000 copies. Sources include French, Russian, Danish, and Romanian tales as well as Norse mythology.

  • "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"
  • "The Princess Mayblossom"
  • "Soria Moria Castle"
  • "The Death of Koschei the Deathless"
  • "The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen"
  • "The Master Thief"
  • "Brother and Sister"
  • "Princess Rosette"
  • "The Enchanted Pig"
  • "The Norka"
  • "The Wonderful Birch"
  • "Jack and the Beanstalk"
  • "The Little Good Mouse"
  • "Graciosa and Percinet"
  • "The Three Princesses of Whiteland"
  • ""
  • "The Six Sillies"
  • "Kari Woodengown"
  • "Drakestail"
  • "The Ratcatcher"
  • "The True History of Little Goldenhood"
  • "The Golden Branch"
  • "The Three Dwarfs"
  • "Dapplegrim"
  • "The Enchanted Canary"
  • "The Twelve Brothers"
  • "Rapunzel"
  • "The Nettle Spinner"
  • "Farmer Weatherbeard"
  • "Mother Holle"
  • "Minnikin"
  • "Bushy Bride"
  • "Snowdrop"
  • "The Golden Goose"
  • "The Seven Foals"
  • "The Marvellous Musician"
  • "The Story of Sigurd"

    ''The Blue Poetry Book'' (1891)

Contains 153 poems by great British and American poets.

  • Anonymous
  • *"A Red, Red Rose"
  • *"Annan Water"
  • *"Battle of Otterbourne"
  • *"Cherry Ripe"
  • *"The Demon Lover"
  • *"Helen of Kirkconnel"
  • *"Kinmont Willie"
  • *"Lawlands of Holland"
  • *"Lyke-Wake Dirge"
  • *"Mary Ambree"
  • *"Sir Hugh, or the Jew's Daughter"
  • *"Sir Patrick Spens"
  • *"The Twa Corbies"
  • *"The Wife of Usher's Well"
  • *"Willie Drowned in Yarrow"
  • Richard Barnfield
  • *"The Nightingale"
  • William Blake
  • *"Night"
  • *"Nurse's Song"
  • *"The Chimney-sweeper"
  • *"The Lamb"
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • *"To Flush, my Dog"
  • William Cullen Bryant
  • *"To a Waterfowl"
  • John Bunyan
  • *"The Pilgrim"
  • Minstrel Burn
  • *"Leader Haughs"
  • Robert Burns
  • *"Bannockburn"
  • *"I Love my Jean"
  • *"O, wert Thou in the Cauld Blast"
  • *"The Banks o' Doon"
  • *"The Farewell"
  • *"There'll never be Peace till Jamie comes Hame"
  • Lord Byron
  • *"Could Love for Ever, Run like a River"
  • *"So, we'll go no more a Roving"
  • *"Stanzas written on the Road between Florence and Pisa"
  • *"The Destruction of Sennacherib"
  • Thomas Campbell
  • *"Hohenlinden"
  • *"Lord Ullin's Daughter"
  • *"The Battle of the Baltic"
  • *"The Last Man"
  • *"The Soldier's Dream"
  • *"Ye Mariners of England"
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • *"Christabel"
  • *"Kubla Khan"
  • *"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
  • William Collins
  • *"Ode written in MDCCXLVI"
  • *"To Evening"
  • William Cowper
  • *"Boadicea"
  • *"Epitaph on a Hare"
  • *"John Gilpin"
  • *"On a Spaniel called 'Beau' Killing a Young Bird"
  • *"The Dog and the Water-lily"
  • *"The Poplar Field"
  • *"The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk"
  • Charles Dibdin
  • *"Tom Bowling"
  • Michael Drayton
  • *"Ballad of Agincourt"
  • John Dryden
  • *"Alexander's Feast; or, the Power of Music"
  • Jean Elliot
  • *"The Flowers o' the Forest"
  • Oliver Goldsmith
  • *"Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog"
  • Thomas Gray
  • *"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
  • *"The Bard"
  • Robert Herrick
  • *"To Blossoms"
  • *"To Daffodils"
  • Thomas Heywood
  • *"Morning"
  • James Hogg
  • *"A Boy's Song"
  • *"The Skylark"
  • Thomas Hood
  • *"A Lake and a Fairy Boat"
  • *"I Remember, I Remember"
  • Ben Jonson
  • *"Hymn to Diana"
  • John Keats
  • *"La Belle Dame Sans Mercy"
  • *"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"
  • *"Winter"
  • Charles Lamb
  • *"Hester"
  • Mary Lamb
  • *"The Child and the Snake"
  • Walter Savage Landor
  • *"Rose Aylmer"
  • Lady Anne Barnard
  • *"Auld Robin Gray"
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  • *"The Beleaguered City"
  • *"The Day is Done"
  • *"The Fire of Drift-wood"
  • *"The Village Blacksmith"
  • *"The Wreck of the Hesperus"
  • Richard Lovelace
  • *"To Althea from Prison"
  • *"To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars"
  • Thomas Babington Macaulay
  • *"Ivry"
  • *"The Armada"
  • *"The Battle of Naseby"
  • Christopher Marlowe
  • *"The Passionate Shepherd to his Love"
  • Andrew Marvell
  • *"Song of the Emigrants in Bermuda"
  • *"The Girl Describes her Fawn"
  • William Julius Mickle
  • *"Cumnor Hall"
  • John Milton
  • *"L'Allegro"
  • *"Il Penseroso"
  • *"Lycidas"
  • *"On The Morning of Christ's Nativity"
  • Thomas Moore
  • *"As Slow our Ship"
  • *"The Light of Other Days"
  • *"The Harp that once through Tara's Halls"
  • *"The Minstrel-Boy"
  • Carolina Nairne
  • *"The Land o' the Leal"
  • Thomas Nashe
  • *"Spring"
  • Thomas Love Peacock
  • *"War-song of Dinas Vawr"
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • *"Annabel Lee"
  • *"The Haunted Palace"
  • *"The Sleeper"
  • *"The Valley of Unrest"
  • *"To Helen"
  • *"To One in Paradise"
  • *"Ulalume"
  • Winthrop Mackworth Praed
  • *"The Red Fisherman; or, the Devil's Decoy"
  • Walter Scott
  • *"A Weary Lot is Thine, Fair Maid"
  • *"Alice Brand"
  • *"Allen-a-Dale"
  • *"County Guy"
  • *"Evening"
  • *"Gathering Song of Donald Dhu"
  • *"Hunting Song"
  • *"Hymn for the Dead"
  • *"Jock of Hazeldean"
  • *"Lucy Ashton's Song"
  • *"Nora's Vow"
  • *"Proud Maisie"
  • *"Rosabelle"
  • *"St. Swithin's Chair"
  • *"The Cavalier"
  • *"The Eve of St. John"
  • *"The Outlaw"
  • *"The Sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill"
  • *"Twist ye, Twine ye"
  • *"Where Shall the Lover Rest?"
  • *"Young Lochinvar"
  • William Shakespeare
  • *"A Sea Dirge"
  • *"Fidele"
  • *"Orpheus with his Lute"
  • *"Where the Bee Sucks, there Suck I"
  • *"Who is Silvia? What is she"
  • *"Winter"
  • Percy Bysshe Shelley
  • *"Arethusa"
  • *"To a Skylark"
  • *"The Recollection"
  • James Shirley
  • *"Death the Leveller"
  • Philip Sidney
  • *"Sleep"
  • Robert Surtees
  • *"Barthram's Dirge"
  • Charles Wolfe
  • *"The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna"
  • *"To Mary"
  • William Wordsworth
  • *"I Wandered Lonely"
  • *"Lucy Gray; or, Solitude"
  • *"On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott"
  • *"from Abbotsford for Naples, 1831"
  • *"The Kitten and Falling Leaves"
  • *"The Reverie of Poor Susan"
  • *"The Solitary Reaper"
  • *"To the Cuckoo"
  • *"Two April Mornings"
  • *"Yarrow Unvisited, 1803"
  • *"Yarrow Visited, September 1814"
  • Henry Wotton
  • *"Elizabeth of Bohemia"