The Blue Fairy Book

First published in 1889, this is the opening volume of Andrew Lang's coloured fairy-book series, gathering wonder tales from French, German, Norse, and other European sources, with a few from farther afield. Typical pieces include Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Rumpelstiltskin, Aladdin, and Dick Whittington, alongside less familiar stories of youngest sons, talking animals, and bargains with witches. The texts are retellings for family reading rather than scholarly transcriptions. There is no frame story and no single hero. The book is a mixed anthology of traditional narrative, not an original novel.

Bound in blue cloth cover and spine blocked with a design in gilt, red and white. Dark blue slipcase.