The Lilac Fairy Book

A classic fairy tale collection from the Scottish folklorist that includes “The Brown Bear of Norway,” a variation on the Beauty and the Beast story.
 
First published in 1910, The Lilac Fairy Book is the last of Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books of Many Colors, a series known as the best English translations of standard stories and for its rich and wide-ranging scope. Here are thirty-three enchanting tales for children, passed down through generations in Africa, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, India, Portugal, France, and Scandinavia. Along with “The Winning Olwen”—an Arthurian legend from the Welsh Mabinogion—The Lilac Fairy Book includes “The False Prince and the True,” “The Three Crowns,” “The Heart of a Monkey,” “The Enchanted Deer,” “The Story of a Very Bad Boy,” “The Lady of the Fountain,” and more.
 
“The old favorite series on which most of us were brought up—and our parents before us . . . Andrew Lang and his associates managed to break the stranglehold of the pious sentimentality handed out to children by collecting—from all over the world—fairy tales of all people, and bringing out the volumes we all know and love.” —Kirkus Reviews