The Classic Fairy Tales - Tapa dura

"All ages will enjoy Iona and Peter Opie's collection of The Classic Fairy Tales."--York County Coast Star "Their most enjoyable book to date...For your money you get three books in one, the stories, the essays and the ample illustrations."--illiam Golding, Listener "A beautiful book...both charming and scholarly"--Paul Barker, New Society "Some wand must have been waved over the Opies to give them the brilliant idea for this book...A volume of extraordinary fascination and richness."--Edwin Morgan "This is a book that everybody ought to possess."-- Richard Adams "It is not possible to praise too highly The Classic Fairy Tales, selected, introduced, and annotated by the peerless scholars of children's literature Iona and Peter Opie."--The New Yorker "Contains 24 of the best-known fairy tales, dozens of absolutely entrancing illustrations, and a brilliant and extensive commentary by Iona and Peter Opie, the peerless anthologists who have given us the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes."--Washington Post "All ages will enjoy Iona and Peter Opie's collection of The Classic Fairy Tales."--York County Coast Star "Their most enjoyable book to date...For your money you get three books in one, the stories, the essays and the ample illustrations."--illiam Golding, Listener "A beautiful book...both charming and scholarly"--Paul Barker, New Society "Some wand must have been waved over the Opies to give them the brilliant idea for this book...A volume of extraordinary fascination and richness."--Edwin Morgan "This is a book that everybody ought to possess."-- Richard Adams "It is not possible to praise too highly The Classic Fairy Tales, selected, introduced, and annotated by the peerless scholars of children's literature Iona and Peter Opie."--The New Yorker "Contains 24 of the best-known fairy tales, dozens of absolutely entrancing illustrations, and a brilliant and extensive commentary by Iona and Peter Opie, the peerless anthologists who have given us the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes."--Washington Post "All ages will enjoy Iona and Peter Opie's collection of The Classic Fairy Tales."--York County Coast Star "Their most enjoyable book to date...For your money you get three books in one, the stories, the essays and the ample illustrations."--illiam Golding, Listener "A beautiful book...both charming and scholarly"--Paul Barker, New Society "Some wand must have been waved over the Opies to give them the brilliant idea for this book...A volume of extraordinary fascination and richness."--Edwin Morgan "This is a book that everybody ought to possess."-- Richard Adams "It is not possible to praise too highly The Classic Fairy Tales, selected, introduced, and annotated by the peerless scholars of children's literature Iona and Peter Opie."--The New Yorker "Contains 24 of the best-known fairy tales, dozens of absolutely entrancing illustrations, and a brilliant and extensive commentary by Iona and Peter Opie, the peerless anthologists who have given us the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes."--Washington Post "All ages will enjoy Iona and Peter Opie's collection of The Classic Fairy Tales."--York County Coast Star "Their most enjoyable book to date...For your money you get three books in one, the stories, the essays and the ample illustrations."--illiam Golding, Listener "A beautiful book...both charming and scholarly"--Paul Barker, New Society "Some wand must have been waved over the Opies to give them the brilliant idea for this book...A volume of extraordinary fascination and richness."--Edwin Morgan "This is a book that everybody ought to possess."-- Richard Adams "It is not possible to praise too highly The Classic Fairy Tales, selected, introduced, and annotated by the peerless scholars of children's literature Iona and Peter Opie."--The New Yorker "Contains 24 of the best-known fairy tales, dozens of absolutely entrancing illustrations, and a brilliant and extensive commentary by Iona and Peter Opie, the peerless anthologists who have given us the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes."--Washington Post

We have all been enchanted, enthralled and even terrified by fairy tales, and no child is brought up without learning the story of Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood. The most popular tales have long histories, over which successive editors have not only shortened and sentimentalized them but also slanted them according to the demands of time. In this book, 24 of the best-known tales are given in their original form, either as they were first printed in English, or in their earliest surviving text. Each tale has a historical introduction, showing the development of the story and noting particular points of interest. Was Cinderella's shoe really a glass slipper or was it made of fur? Was Little Red Riding Hood devoured by the wolf, or was she saved. How did the old woman in Southey's version of "The Three Bears" become the Goldilocks we know today? In a general introduction, Iona and Peter Opie look at the realism as well as the enchantment in the tales, and put into perspective the contributions of Perrault, the Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Andersen. The book contains 150 illustrations by famous illustrators such as Walter Crane, George Cruikshank, Gustave Dore, Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham, W.Heath Robinson and Rex Whistler.