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In this tale, the dragon slayer is of noble birth. Defeating the monster not only gains him a princess for a wife, but also leads to the release of his two brothers and villagers who had been imprisoned by the beast. The dragon is a shapeshifter that encloses within his body, like nested boxes, a series of other animals. In order to be victorious, the slayer must defeat the dragon, a boar, a hare, a pigeon, and finally a sparrow that reveals where the dragon has been keeping its captives. The slayer does not act alone but receives help from an old woman who is being held prisoner by the dragon and from a princess whose kiss enables him to finally defeat it. Two black and white illustrations accompany the tale: the first depicts one of the princes being caught by the dragon; the second depicts the dragon slayer receiving a kiss from the king’s daughter before he slays the dragon.
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In this version of Cinderella based on Charles Perrault’s tale, her fairy godmother used magic to transform pumpkin and animals (mice, rats, lizards) into a carriage and servants to take Cinderella to the ball to meet the Prince. Her stepsisters were cruel to her, but once they found out she was the beautiful girl at the ball with the Prince, they begged for her forgiveness. There is one color illustration for this tale that depicts Cinderella coming out of her carriage at the prince’s ball.
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There are twelve black and white illustrations for this tale. The story is written in a simple style, is easy to read, and moves quickly. In the preface to the entire volume, Mary Howitt writes that her favorite fairy tale is Cinderella, because of the moral: “There is a deep moral in it—hope to the hopeless, joy to the joyless—the white healing wings of a good angel hovering over us when our hearts are shorn to the very quick by unkindness or neglect.”
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Translated from Danish, this edition of “The Princess in the Chest” has been simplified for young readers. It comes from The Pink Fairy Book, one volume of a larger collection of stories and fairy tales for children. This version of the tale softens some of the frightening themes by incorporating some lighthearted humor and including a few detailed illustrations . This tale has clear religious references, including a hero named Christian who protects himself with a book taken off the altar in the church where the princess lies dead in a chest .
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There is one full-page black and white illustration of the prince about to wake the sleeping princess, as well as smaller illustrations including a historiated initial at the beginning of the tale. Unlike in many fairy tales, in this translation of the Grimms’ story, there is no justice carried out on the woman whom cursed the princess; she is never mentioned again .
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The illustration in this version is very colorful and intricate, almost dream-like, and gives a detailed image of Beauty and the beast once he is a prince. This illustration is at the end of the story, however, allowing the reader to form their own mental images of the characters first. Additionally, this version deals with class and gender roles. The merchant starts out rich, but loses his money, which causes the story to unfold. There is no mention of regaining wealth, however they do end up with the prince at his palace, so it is implied. Throughout the story, Beauty displays what may be a message to women about their role in society and what they have to do to be proper ladies. Beauty is constantly doing housework and taking care of her father without complaint, and eventually agrees to marry a beast. She is rewarded for these actions by the beast turning into a handsome prince, her prideful sisters being enchanted, and her father being able to live with her in the palace.
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This tale is told in language easily understood by children, using almost exclusively one-syllable words, an conveys clear a clear moral instructing children to obey their parents. Longer words, such as moth-er, fai-ry, gi-ant, and cas-tle, are hyphenated into syllables to aid early readers. There are thirteen simple black-and-white images to simply supplement the storyline.
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Part of the Walter Crane’s Toy Books Shilling Series, this edition of Beauty and the Beast is a simplified tale with light colorful images that caters toward young readers. It is a very light and simple read with many magical and delightful elements. In this version, the prince is put under a spell by a magician and doomed to live as a beast, until a beautiful girl loves him despite his ugliness.
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This tale is a new version of the old Greek story created by Andrew Lang in 1906. The plot also recalls the Greek myth of King Minos who sacrificed young men and women from Athens to the Minotaur he kept in his labyrinth. One black and white illustration depicts the serpent threatening a group of men on their knees.
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This version of the tale has very beautiful illustrations by Arthur Rackham, including four black and white illustrations positioned throughout the text and one color plate depicting Sleeping Beauty in her bed. The black and white illustrations depict: the evil fairy, the old woman spinning, the castle surrounded by thorns, and an elf at the end of the tale.
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This is a simplified version of the tale that was clearly intended for children. There are six tales in total. Besides Sleeping Beauty, the book includes some of Grimm’s best known tales including The Frog Prince, Rumplestilskin, and Hansel and Grethel, as well as The Rabbit’s Bride and The Shreds. The illustrations are simple but beautiful and a few pages are decorated with floral motifs.
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Perrault’s version of the tale focuses more on the prince’s mother than on Sleeping Beauty. This translation of Perrault’s tale includes nine black and white illustrations. Except the scene of the fairies at the Christening which is a full page illustration, all of the images are smaller and embedded in the text of the tale. Instead of captions, there are phrases in italics that link the text to the images.
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In this thrilling rendition of a princess in a coffin, you witness a royal couple’s unusual quest for parenthood. A wicked prophecy is cast upon an unnaturally born princess, and the King’s lack of patience and brings about a great misfortune. The princess is revived but at a great cost to a great number of men who lose their lives. This version of the tale is not written for young readers, as it presents great horrors and a lack of illustrations and so a child reader would probably not be greatly entertained. Although the editor of the volume was a Danish folklorist, the American translator claims to have heard the same stories when he lived in Denmark as a child. It follows a similar plot path to many other Princess in a Chest Fairy tales, including Straparola’s early version (1550), the tale of Tebaldo and Doralice. But this version contains many Christian references, including a protagonist called Christian who prays to God and setting in a Church.
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This version of Cinderella was written with language suitable for children of all ages and contains only one-syllable words. It includes few black and white illustrations, but there are more words than pictures. This book was created with the intention of entertaining young readers who are interested in Fairy Tales.
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This adaptation of Beauty and the Beast is one that highlights an extremely compassionate Beast and has an ending that contains a strong sense of justice for the two sisters who treated Beauty horribly. In this version, Beauty and the Beast live happily ever after she returns from visiting her father because she realizes she love the Beast which breaks his enchantment. After the Beast becomes a handsome prince, a fairy appears to make Beauty a queen and to make her sisters pay for their malice and injustice towards Beauty by turning them into statues at the gates of Beauty’s palace. They will remain statues until they become aware of the mistakes they have made, while Beauty and the Beast live a long and happy life. This version is also special because it is a cheap version of print published without an author or the original source. It is printed extremely simply, and only sold for a penny. Samuel and John Keys have published countless other fairytales, as seen on the back of the book, all for a penny each .
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The maiden wears the skin of a magical ass/ donkey to hide herself amidst the public of the kingdom. This is unique because instead of her hiding in a dresser or being shipped away to another land, as in some persecuted maiden tales, she is instead hiding under a second skin to make herself unrecognizable. There are three black and white illustrations depicting the king and his pet donkey; the fairy, the princess, and the donkey skin; and the donkey skin falling off the princess as the prince stands nearby.
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This richly illustrated edition of Hop-O’-My-Thumb includes six black and white images. The text is directed towards younger children. In the preface, Mary Howitt writes that “The gist of every fairy tale is the triumph of the weak over the strong—an overruling principle of justice and mercy, which will, in the end, set all things right; and so far they are full of truth .” In this version, Hop-O’-My-Thumb uses his wits to trick a hungry and angry Ogre into killing his daughters, seven Ogresses. Hop-O’-My-Thumb steals magical seven league boots from the Ogre and uses them to bring riches to his poor family.
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In this version of this Sleeping Beauty tale based on Charles Perrault’s tale, the princess is awakened by just the presence of the prince. Also, in this tale the prince's mother, the queen, is "of the race of Ogres", which like to eat little children. The prince hides his marriage and children from his mother because he is scared she will eat them. The queen tries to eat the children and the princess but the cook feeds her goats instead. In the end, the queen ends up taking her own life by jumping into a pit of toads, vipers and snakes of all sorts that devour her. There are three black and white illustrations depicting: the newborn princess in her cradle as the old woman curses her; the prince making his way though the hedge; and Little Day, Sleeping Beauty’s son, fencing with a monkey.
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Cruikshank created six full-page etchings to accompany the tale of Hop O’ My Thumb that depict nine scenes from the story. Not only does Hop O’ My Thumb leave a trail of white pebbles so he and his brothers can find their way out of the woods, he also marks trees with his knife, a practice Cruikshank says in a note is typical of Native Americans: “This is what Indians do—they notch trees and so find their way through the largest forests” (p. 9). Cruikshank includes comical asides. For example, Hop knows how seven-league boots work because he read about them in a book acquired from London printer and bookseller, Mr David Brogue of 86 Fleet Street.
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This book contains a preface that introduces a framing narrative, however, the narrative is never addressed again throughout the book. Each story is told one after another, with its own separate beginning and ending, and there are no further references to the frame tale after the first tale. Through the preface, in which a young girl named Sunflower speaks with her mother, we discover that the tales contained within this book are targeted towards children as they are retold by the mother. Sunflower praises her mother’s story telling because she “leave(s) out all the not interesting bits you know and make me understand what the story is all about.” This Sleeping Beauty Tale is concise, easy to read, contains little character development, and is very clean (no gruesomeness). As these stories are retold again, the preface addresses two individuals, Mary de Morgan who was an English writer, as well as the publisher Messers. Macmillian, who both “lent” some of these stories to the author.
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Edited specifically for children with five black and white illustrations that depict the following scenes: Beauty’s father departing, her father picking the rose when the Beast appears, Beauty’s dream of the handsome prince, Beauty in the room with exotic birds, and Beauty finding the Beast on the ground in the garden.
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This collections of tales is not intended for children, but is instead an attempt to gather tales that the editor feels are disappearing from circulation. There are small variations in the details of the story, but these don’t distract the reader from the moral of the story: Jack becomes an obedient and loving child. At the beginning of the tale, the character of Jack is lazy and unmotivated and there is an addition to the story which involves a fairy character.
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The illustrator for this version depicts four moments Cinderella’s story: being oppressed by her step stepsisters and stepmother, meeting her godmother, escaping from the ball, and embracing her stepsisters after they asked to be forgiven and were made noble by marrying lords. The realistic black and white illustrations are easily comprehended even without captions.
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The three black and white illustrations of this version reinforce the depressing emotions expressed in the story. Certain instances of the story are chosen to be depicted instead of others and they all point to Cinderella’s way of escape from the oppression of her stepmother and stepsisters: Cinderella in the kitchen with the white dove, Cinderella receiving the dress from the birds, and the prince holding her shoe. Loving and kind Cinderella never prevents her stepsisters from attending the festivities for her wedding. However, karma catches up with her stepsisters in the end.
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This persecuted maiden tale in Straparola’s book of tales is the first fairy tale presented in his collection. This story can be identified by the use of magic liquor that keeps the princess alive during her time hidden in a chest. This story of Tebaldo and Doralice is narrated by a woman and concludes with justice served to the antagonistic man and a happily ever after for the princess. In this ending , we see evidence of the book’s dedication to women.
