The Lilac Fairy Book
1910
The Lilac Fairy Book gathers more than thirty tales gathered from the far corners of the world: the windswept coasts of Portugal and Ireland, the ancient hills of Wales, the frozen forests of Norway. Andrew Lang, that great collector of dreams, assembled stories that thrum with old magic and stranger consequences than you'd find in any polished nursery retelling. The first tale, "The Shifty Lad," announces the collection's appetite for cleverness and mischief a young thief who defies his mother and tumbles into adventure, his wits as much his weapon as any enchanted blade. Here you'll find enchanted deer and bears that speak, brownies and fairies and princes transformed, but these are not passive fairy tale protagonists waiting to be saved. They scheme, they steal, they trick their way toward transformation. The collection pulses with dark humor and moral ambiguity, with consequences that bite and cleverness that redeems. For readers who have outgrown sanitized versions and crave the raw, wild heart of folklore, these are stories that remember what fairy tales were always meant to be.
![XXXII Ballades in Blue China [1885]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fd3b2n8gj62qnwr.cloudfront.net%2FCOVERS%2Fgutenberg_covers75k%2Febook-51160.png&w=3840&q=75)
