The Pink Fairy Book

The Pink Fairy Book is a portal to Elsewhere, compiled by Andrew Lang at the height of the Victorian era when the world seemed both vast and strangely knowable. Here are forty-one stories gathered from the far corners of the earth: from the misty forests of Scandinavia come tales of Snow-Queens and cruel trolls; from Japan arrive the mischievous tanuki and a lovesick cat named Gon who must outwit a furious dog to win his beloved; from Sicily and Catalonia and the African continent come stories that pulse with different rhythms yet share the same ancient heartbeat. These are not the softened, sanitized tales of modern picture books. Here, ogres devour the unwary, princesses are exiled to the forest, and magic demands terrible prices. Yet courage and kindness and cleverness always find their reward. Lang believed that fairy tales were humanity's universal language, and this collection proves him right. Whether a child encounters a familiar Andersen gem or a wholly strange Japanese creature for the first time, the effect is the same: the world expands, the imagination catches fire, and the reader steps across the threshold into wonder.