Child's Book of Old Fashioned Fairy Tales is meant to be read aloud. Mme. deChatelain was a premier translator of Grimm and Anderson in Victorian England and is well known for her eloquent sense of language. None of these stories have been "modernized" but have been left intact to maintain their original flair. This book contains the well known fairy tales that have variations not told in modern versions. Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood each have mysterious fairies that become essential to their stories. The tales The Charmed Fawn and The Eleven Wild Swans are notable for the role of girls in saving their brothers. In The Fair One with Golden Locks and The White Cat young women help young princes and noblemen achieve their goals. The Nine Mountains and Red Jacket; or, the Nose Tree present challenging problems where boys and men cooperate to learn and succeed. The Elves of the Fairy Forest is a cautionary tale where a young woman, becoming frustrated with her husbands adamant belief in a lie, betrays a confidence given to her by elves that condemns her thriving village to poverty. All the fairy tales are beautifully told with a challenging vocabulary. The book contains a glossary of old fashioned terms and phrases easily accessible at the back. The original Victorian illustrations are interspersed throughout.
About the Author: Mme. De Chatelain (1807-1876) was an eminent English author, translator, poet, and photographer. She translated more than four hundred songs; one hundred, forty original tales, fifty fairy tales, and sixteen musical handbooks. She is noted for her use of eloquent language. Her fairy tale translations often feature young girls and princesses who save their brothers and help young men overcome curses and enchantments. She is credited with being an early science fiction writer for her work "Sir Wilfred's Seven Flights" which takes Sir Wilfred to an under the sea lost world and to several planets. Editor Richard S. Bailey is author of several theatrical pieces including a deconstruction of the Antigone myth, "Tiresias Lies: The Insidious Plot of the Men with No Left Shoe", a three-act comedy disguised as a Greek tragedy, ("Daring theatre, completely surprising, and still completely within the mythic framework." - Adam Leipzig, editor Cultural Weekly); "Deus Ex Machina" an absurd, sci-fi comedy based on the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac ("wit, wisdom, and downright fun." - T.H. McCulloh, Hollywood Drama-Logue) and "The Hands of the Beholder" is its prologue piece that probes fanatic conspiracy theories and modern terrorism; Window Pieces: A Collection of Reflections and Points of View, a new issue that contains nine sh0rt plays set in front of and behind windows which presents an edgier, sculptural look at urban life. His translation of "Growing Absurd: Six Short Plays by Jean Tardieu" is the first of the seminal absurdist's works to be translated into the American genre and is currently scheduled for production in several American universities and colleges. He was personally invited to work with Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett at the West Berlin Academy of Art (1977).