title: A World of Fairy Tales
author:  Andrew Lang 
description: Grade 4 Up-Culled from Lang's 12 "color" fairy tale books, this remarkable collection features the full-color paintings and line drawings from the originals and covers a wide geographic range. An introduction provides background on Lang and the 24 tales, as well as good source notes for each one. The language is poetic and may prove challenging to some readers, but it does offer a rich source of vivid imagery. Ford's illustrations demonstrate the Pre-Raphaelite influence on his work and are so consistent with the tales that text and art form an integrated whole. The Rainbow Fairy Book (Morrow, 1993), illustrated by Michael Hague, is a comparable anthology. While it has more stories (31), they are more familiar ones, including "Hansel and Gretel," "Rapunzel," and "Cinderella." Only two are duplicated. Hague's volume has a similar introduction and a bibliography that gives early sources but does not indicate which book each story comes from. Librarians would be justified in purchasing both.<br /><i>Donna L. Scanlon, Lancaster County Library, PA</i><br />Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  # The Crimson Fairy Book
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Andrew Lang
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Preface
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  Each Fairy Book demands a preface from the Editor, and these
  
  
  introductions are inevitably both monotonous and unavailing. A
  
  
  sense of literary honesty compels the Editor to keep repeating that
  
  
  he is the Editor, and not the author of the Fairy Tales, just as a
  
  
  distinguished man of science is only the Editor, not the Author of
  
  
  Nature. Like nature, popular tales are too vast to be the creation of
  
  
  a single modern mind. The Editor's business is to hunt for
  
  
  collections of these stories told by peasant or savage grandmothers
  
  
  in many climes, from New Caledonia to Zululand; from the frozen
  
  
  snows of the Polar regions to Greece, or Spain, or Italy, or far
  
  
  Lochaber. When the tales are found they are adapted to the needs
  
  
  of British children by various hands, the Editor doing little beyond
  
  
  guarding the interests of propriety, and