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This tale is a translation from the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale that is about nameless characters including a maiden whose hands get cut off by her own father, a miller, in order to follow through with a promise he had made to an old man who promised him riches. This version has a heavy emphasis on prayer and religion, highlighted in a black and white illustration of an angel that assists and ultimately leads the maiden to a happy ending of being reunited with the king (her husband). There is also a strong emphasis on an old man deceiving the main characters and driving forward the plot.
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This is a simplified version of Charles Perrault’s tale intended for young readers. For every full page of text there is a full-page, black and white illustration. On the cover of the book, we see Cinderella and her fairy godmother, with a mouse trap and rat trap depicted on the right side of the image. This book is part of a Mother Goose series published by Routledge that included Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes, Mother Goose’s Melodies, Mother Goose’s Jingles, Mother Goose at Home, and Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales.
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The maiden in this tale triumphs over her oppressor with her brothers’ help and lives a long happy life. Although this is a children’s book, the author has included the gory scene in which Fatima, Bluebeard’s wife, discovers the severed heads of her husband’s former wives when she unlocks the room he has forbidden her to visit. There is one color illustration that depicts Fatima calling to her sister Anne to ask if their brothers are on the way to save her.
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A sparsely illustrated edition of a Dragon Slayer tale poses a question at the end pointed at the reader asking what they would do if they were in the Prince’s shoes. In the three illustrations for this tale, the illustrator chose to show the scenes when the Youth encounters the evil characters (i.e. the witch and dragon). Though this book is written in prose with more difficult language than other books of fairy tales in the collection, the Preface says this book is written for children.
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This is a beautifully illustrated and simply written version of the classic Beauty and the Beast tale. The inclusion of Beauty’s dreams drives the plot forward in a unique twist to this tale. This version also begins with explanations of her character versus her sisters’, spending the first pages proving that Beauty is selfless and kind. Beauty willingly stays in the Beast’s castle in place of her father and in the midst of the tale, Beauty is allowed to return home for a brief visit, only to return by choice to the Beast after a terrible dream. The tale concludes with the classic transformation.
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In this edition of the Grimm’s fairy tales, there are two detailed, black and white illustrations of giants depicted as very large, normal humans, not monstrous beings. However, they act like monstrous giants by eating sheep and living in a cave. There is also an illustration of the tailor catching a unicorn.
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In some versions of the tale there are different numbers of children, the Beast gives the merchant the gifts for the other children beside Beauty, or magical helpers like fairies try to nudge Beauty toward the Beast. In this version, there are three daughters, the merchant buys gifts for his children while on his journey elsewhere, and the Beauty, named Bella, falls in love with the beast of her own accord. The servants in some versions are animals that are enchanted in some way, but this version only has invisible servants. Perhaps the most striking difference is that the Beast in this version is kinder than in other versions and allows the father to visit weekly, while in other versions the Beast allows Beauty to visit her family only once. In the end of the story, some versions have Bella discovering her noble background, but this version does not touch on that aspect.
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Two twin knights who originated from an apathetic, talking fish set out on an adventure. The first knight finds a dragon, slays it to save the princess, and then marries her. He seeks out a mysterious enchanted castle with echoing spirits and is tricked into falling into a cavern by an old witch. The second knight, his twin brother, stumbles upon the city where his brother was crowned king and is curious as to why the people think they recognize him. He deciphers that his brother set off to the enchanted castle after talking to the princess and then tricks the old witch who resides there into saving his brother, all the knights who came upon the castle before him, and all the beautiful women who were sacrificed to the dragon.
This tale is different because it is almost two tales in one, as well as because the previously slain men and the women who were sacrificed come back to life at the end. There is one color illustration for this tale.
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A heavily-illustrated edition of Little Red Riding Hood with a shortened and rhyming version of the tale that has clearly been adapted to appeal to children. In this version, the wolf eats the grandmother and nearly eats Little Red Riding Hood, but a hunter kills the wolf at that exact moment. There is no mention of the grandmother again, so the wolf must have killed her when he ate her.