Andrew Langs series of fairy-tale books are some of the fundamental childrens reading of the twentieth and late nineteenth century.
Many readers who have only seen or read modern, Disney-fied versions of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty or Snow-White will not recognize some of the darker twists in these tales. For example, in Sleeping Beauty, when the Prince wakes the Princess and marries her, the story is by no means over. The Princes mother is an Ogress, whom his father married for her wealth, and its suspected that she likes to eat little children; that whenever she saw little children passing by, she had all the difficulty in the world to avoid falling upon them. The happy couple have two children, named Day and Morning, and the Ogress decides to dine on them one day when the Prince is away. Yes, it still has a happy ending, but Disney it isnt.
The Blue Fairy Book is amazing. It has an excellent group of stories from different fairy tale writers, including Perrault, dAulnoy, and Grimm. This book was originally printed in the 19th century. These are the original, unaltered by Disney versions, and contain the nightmarish plots they were meant to have.
Anyone who collects fairy tales should have this, the stories are marvellous entertainment.
