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Interesting as always..
Favorites:The Cats' ElopementThe Princess in the Chest (perseverance when we commit to something)SnowflakeCatherine and Her DestinyHow the Hermit Helped to Win the King's Daughter (other than the cutting wife in half part)The Water of LifeThe Wounded LionThe Sprig of RosemaryThe White Dove The Troll's DaughterEsben and the Witch (Finally, he received gratitude--but how could he kill all the witch's daughters with a clear conscience?)I Know What I Have Learned (so true of human nature--we tend to...
I read most of the “color” fairy tales that Lang gathered when I was still in middle school. The Pink Fairy Book was one that I had started but never completed and I don’t remember why. I did notice that some of the tales are quite gory and violent, while in other tales evil seems to triumph, so perhaps that is why I never finished it. The tales are from all over the world and are a part of the cultural history of those countries. I find this fascinating as many of the tales are similar in basic...
I really liked to read some of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy books in this one. It was very interesting to read The Snow Queen and see how different it is from Frozen.
This was my first Fairy Book. I was not familiar with many of these tales, but really enjoyed hearing Japanese folklore.
Albert Einstein said, "if you want your children to be intelligent read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." Andrew Lang compiled twelve books of fairy tales from all over the world. He and his wife translated the ones not in English. It is a rainbow + of books. The Blue and Red books have the most familiar and it is amazing in reading the tales how many common themes are repeated in different cultures and societies. I read "The Pink Fairy Book"...
The Pink Fairy Book has, in my opinion, some of the best and most interesting tales in the series. It also features some of my favorite H.J. Ford illustrations(in "How the Dragon was Tricked", "Uraschimataro and the Turtle", "The Snow-Queen", and "Esben and the Witch"). But as for the stories themselves, here is my now-customary list of favorites:-The Cat's Elopement-How the Dragon was Tricked-The Goblin and the Grocer-The House in the Wood-Uraschimataro and the Turtle-The Slaying of the Tanuki
This one was the best so far in the collection, I found that some of the stories were quite similar to those that mom used to tell me as a child. The stories were at times similar to one another but I still enjoyed them as they reminded me of all the night time stories that are told to kids in my country.However, if I was a parent, I wouldn't read these to my kids, as the values that I would want them to learn are far far away from those included in these fairy tales.
These books are addictive.
I don't remember a single particular story from this book, but I remember being scared to death while I was reading it. I don't read anything that could really be classified as horror, but this book made me feel the way I imagine people feel when they read horror stories. I think I may have been about eight or ten when I read it. Perhaps I should find a copy (I don't think I have it any more) and see what terrified me so much. Things that shouldn't ordinarily be scary have been known to frighten...
All new stories to me and nothing familiar. Not bad but not my favorite of the colored books so far. I do not have a top favorite story, but was disappointed with Hans, the Mermaid's Son. Thought it would be interesting but it became disjointed with wasted potential. The Pink book doesn't focus as heavily on the ultimate goal always being kings and marriage (although that's in there a few times too), but it does emphasize the money climb and trials/journeys, which was a nice change since I was g...
I thought I liked fairy tales, but I don't know if I actually don't or if this collection just made me put off by them. Maybe they aren't the best fairy tales, I don't know, but it certainly was a chore to read them all. The main problem is that it's always the same story! Either it's several brothers and the youngest is the clever one, or it's a king abusing someone's service who is helped by a clever animal, or it's a fair maiden saving someone. Isn't there another way to teach moral to kids?T...
An excellent collection of fairy tales from all over the world (complete with incredibly politically incorrect original Preface). I particularly loved the Snow-Queen. Have so many girls ever kicked so much ass in a single fairy tale before? The White Dove was another favorite. I'm going to have to find the Fairy Books of other colors now.
As the others in this series edited by Andrew Lang, the Pink Fairy Book is delightful. You will encounter many familiar themes, but each with a twist based on their country of origin. The Japanese tales were especially interesting, but in the end they all had similar morals about kindness and courage.
An impressive collection of stories. A lot of them had the same features but very different than the usual Grimm Bothers Fairy Tales. I'm planning on going back to some of the stories to have a read again - they were that interesting. A lot of youngest sons and poor girls being the heroes.
The Librivox recording I listened to was very well done and all by the same reader, which made it better than the others I have listened to so far.
This collection leans heavily toward the Danish and Italian tales. Including, alas, Hans Christian Anderson, whose work I have never been fond of. (Though I will note that "The Goblin And the Grocer" was translated pre-modern fantasy; the goblin as a household sprite, like a brownie, is an old tradition.) "The King Who Would Have a Beautiful Wife" struck me as nasty. But it has a number of good ones. I particularly like "Catherine and Her Fate," "The Man Without A Heart", "Esben and the Witch,"
While I enjoyed some of the stories in here, I don't think any were particularly memorable. A lot of them shared similar features and it started feeling very repetitive and started feeling like a chore to read. I was hoping that the stories would show a bit more of the culture as these are from Japan, Italy, Africa and Scandinavia, but this had little impact on the stories - they were pretty much the same recycled idea. Some a bit weirder than others. Overall I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped...
I decided to (re)read all the color fairy books edited by Lang--this is the one I most recently completed. I read them once when I was in--in third grade? fourth grade?. On to the next one, The Grey Fairy Book, and the first story is "Donkeyskin," and I can see clearly how Robin McKinley used the story in her novel, Deerskin.
I have read this book several times, it reminds me of my mom reading to me when I was little. This is a truly great collection of stories. My favorites were, "The Troll's Daughter," "The Goblin and the Grocer," and "Snowflake." I would also highly recommend the other fairy books by Andrew Lang.