| Title | : | The Orange Fairy Book |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0486219097 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780486219097 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1906 |
The Orange Fairy Book Reviews
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The first Fairy Book I've read so far without any overt racism in it anywhere (and it's the antepenultimate one; sigh).
Look! The black characters get illustrated heroically and everything:
Hooray!
On the other hand, there are quite a few of those stories that always make me think that pre-industrial peasants must have been EVIL CALLOUS BASTARDS. Take this charming piece of whimsy, for instance:With many protestations and reproaches they wrangled together, the stranger entreating the goldsmith to say nothing and he would pay him handsomely to atone for the sad accident. At last the goldsmith quieted down, and agreed to accept one thousand gold pieces from the stranger, who immediately helped him to bury his poor wife, and then rushed off to the guest house, packed up his things and was off by daylight, lest the goldsmith should repent and accuse him as the murderer of his wife. Now it very soon appeared that the goldsmith had a lot of extra money, so that people began to ask questions, and finally demanded of him the reason for his sudden wealth.
'Oh,' said he, 'my wife died, and I sold her.'
'You sold your dead wife?' cried the people.
'Yes,' said the goldsmith.
'For how much?'
'A thousand gold pieces,' replied the goldsmith.
Instantly the villagers went away and each caught hold of his own wife and throttled her, and the next day they all went off to sell their dead wives. Many a weary mile did they tramp, but got nothing but hard words or laughter, or directions to the nearest cemetery, from people to whom they offered dead wives for sale.
DELIGHTFUL, AM I RIGHT.
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A collection of tales leaning toward the Scottish, Scandinavian and African. Some from the precieuses. One, "The Bird of Truth", left me wondering whether it was literary because it put the events out of order, which in my experience is a warning sign; folktales tend to recount in order. Though other than that it was a nice variant on that type. "How Ian Direach Got the Blue Falcon" shows Irish fairy tales importing the geas from their heroic literature, and I gotta admit it moves the story nicely. Other good ones include "The Enchanted Wreath."
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As a child, I read this over and over and over again. I remember my parents bought it for me at the little shop attached to a restaurant called The Light of Yoga, which had peanut butter soft serve ice cream and lots of things with sprouts on them. They unfortunately burned down a long time ago.
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I read the fairy books for writing inspiration. I didn't need any when I started this one, but that was only because I have 2 stories being written, 1 clamoring in my head like a bird... and about ten more in various stages. But my reading group has a food challenge...
And I can never quite pass up a challenge. So I read this collection of fairy tales. My favorites were:
- Ian, the Soldier's Son
- The Enchanted Wreath
- The Foolish Weaver
- The White Doe
- The Frog and the Lion Fairy
- The Adventures of Covan the Brown-Haired
- The Princess Bella-Flor
- The Bird of Truth
- The White Slipper
- The Magic Book
Since the food challenge includes finding a recipe containing the food in the title/author's name (and the description of balsam in the White Slipper never states what sort of plants are used in it), I started hunting some exotic orange recipe.
Instead, I found mandarin orange dust-- which sounds like a magical fairy powder.
And delicious.
I found the recipe here:
http://penandfork.com/tips-tutorials/...
The recipe?
- very thinly sliced orange,dried in an oven or dehydrator, pounded into dust, with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar added in.
That's it. -
The Orange Fairy Book didn't have as many great stories as many of the other Fairy Books, but there were still plenty of unusual tales and fantastic illustrations, enough to make it worth my time. There are also a lot of rather unhappy endings in this collection, but those stories were some of the most interesting to read. Here are my personal favorites:
- The Magic Mirror
- The King Who Would See Paradise
- The Fox and the Wolf
- How Ian Direach Got the Blue Falcon
- The Goldsmith's Fortune
- The Foolish Weaver
- all 3 of the Jackal stories(the jackals here are unapologetic jerks, but do eventually get what they deserve)
- The Three Treasures of the Giants
- The Princess Bella-Flor -
What Alan Lomax is to multicultural folk songs, Andrew Lang is to folk stories. #aintnoschoolliketheoldschool
Seriously, there are so many thugs from so many cultures. Giants, greedy baboons, literal rock dudes made of Mountains, Kings who make deals which turn into bad bargains...and boys sent off to plumb the depths of a figurative hell.
Por exemplo:
'Many strange things did Ian behold in that island, more than he had thought for. In a glen lay three heroes stretched on their backs, done to death by three spears that still stuck in their breasts. But he kept his counsel and spake nothing, only he pulled out the spears, and the men sat up and said:
'You are Ian the soldier's son, and a spell is laid upon you to travel in our company, to the cave of the black fisherman ...' [More random shit happens] ... 'When this came to pass the steed broke through the stable door, and kicked him and woke him roughly. 'You did not heed my counsel,' said she; 'and who knows if it is not too late to win over the sea? But first take that sword which hangs on the wall, and cut off the heads of the sixteen grooms.'
Hmmm. Makes some Brothers Grimm I've read seem tame by comparison. Lots more people and animals get their heads cut off by the time this particular story wraps.
Anyway, it was a good read and Lang was quite the collector. I've read many stories he's collected, but this the first actual book of his I've read. -
I very much enjoyed this collection which presents fairytales that are a bit less familiar. Most seem to hail from Africa and Northern Europe, and they are just as blood-thirsty as those in the previous volumes of the series. The series itself is s brilliant concept. I believe Andrew Lange and his wife can be credited with bringing these tales from around the world into mainstream British households.
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I first encountered the Lang collection, often called the Colored Fairy Books because of their titles (Blue, Olive, Crimson, etc.) when I was in elementary school. I enjoyed them because they were so different from the sanitized, prissy princess, modern versions, and I'm happy to see them now available (for very cheap) in Kindle format.
We forget that fairy tales were not originally for children and were not created as vehicles for which to market toys and Happy Meals to toddlers. They were oral entertainment, grisly and cutting social or political commentary more often than not.
For one of the more interesting aspects of fairy tale history, look up "préciosité." The Brothers Grimm are credited with collecting and publishing fairly tales; however,les précieuse is a little-known step in how a group of French noble-women affected the shape of the modern fairy tale and elevated the art of storytelling.
Like any old literature, it's best to read Lang's collections in the context of their times and understand that our 21st century (professed) sensibilities might get a little tweaked from some of the language and prejudices in older literature. Anyone looking for the sweet, slick, happily-ever-after versions where nothing violent or rude ever happens will likely not like this (or any of the older) collections. -
These are available for free for Kindle from Amazon and I don't know if the different colors in the series mean anything. It's illustrated!
Evil stepmothers gotta do what evil stepmothers do.
In fairy tales animals talk to humans, so one thing can lead to another leading to this in the Owl and the Eagle story--
"All went well for several months, and then the eagle's wife (a human) had a son, while on the same day, the owl's wife (also human) gave birth to a frog, which she placed directly on the banks of a stream near by, as he did not seem to like the house." Well, sure. Who wants to live in a house with two women, an owl, an eagle and a human baby? (And by the way, that story is credited to the Journal of the Anthropological Institute. Still makes you wonder what those storytellers were smoking even if their stories are in a respected scientific journal.)
Wouldn't you like to know what they're talking about?
That dragon isn't small, it's the same size as the maiden!
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This was a fun read, and I got to see a lot of new stories.
Unfortunately most of the stories were the same basic formula so it got boring towards the end. I know a lot of fairytales are like that but when there's so many in a row is harder to appreciate them individually. -
Fairy tales from Northern Europe, Africa, and the Native Americans. Lots of fun to read out loud to all the kids. We enjoyed picking out other stories we “saw” within many of them. “That reminded me of Alice in Wonderland,” and so on.
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A dry read. Many stories were done in circles and of the same nature though from all over the world. It was an ok read.
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The quality of the audiobook was very bad and I couldn't wait to finish it. It was ok like every one of these.
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i think mainly african & eastern tales/adaptation. great illustration as always.
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Found an old copy at my work and read it because I was very bored 😂
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https://bloodygranuaile.dreamwidth.or... -
Timeless magic!
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The classic collection of fairy tales, the 10th in the series. A wonderful collection of tales from varied countries. A Reader's Corner Must Read
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Most of them were okay, but it had three good ones in a row in the middle.
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I was truly impressed with the diversity of stories in this collection. I also like that this time around, Lang included a good number of African stories, especially ones about people instead of just ones about animals. There's also a few Scottish stories, and they're MUCH better than the ones in The Blue Fairy Book. This collection has several stories with unhappy endings (particularly among the African stories and Native American stories), which should be a precaution to younger readers. But overall, it's an enjoyable book.
My favorite stories:
- The Story of the Hero Makoma
- How Isuro the Rabbit Tricked Gudu
- How Ian Direach got the Blue Falcon
- The Clever Cat
- The Three Treasures of the Giants (it has such a sad ending, but it's an ending that really gets you to think about human nature)
- The Rover of the Plain (another sad story)
- The White Doe
- The Frog and the Lion Fairy
- The Princess Bella-Flor
It also notably contains The Ugly Ducking, as well as two Madame d'Aulnoy stories. (It's a pity that only half of her stories appear in Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. But then again, some of her stories - such as The Dolphin, Prince Marcassin, The Bee and the Orange Tree, and Princess Carpillon - cannot be made kid-friendly even when using Victorian standards.)
I couldn't think of any stories that were boring or unlikable, so this definitely gets five stars. -
‘The Orange Fairy Book’ comprises more than thirty tales revolving around magic, animals and princesses. Simultaneously there are underlying moral values and lessons imparted in each story.
The author showcased his vocabulary and fully utilized it for various descriptions without most of the words being too difficult for younger readers to understand. Besides that, the stories were quite straightforward and I enjoyed most of them except for a few which didn’t successfully capture my interest. Some of my favourites were The Magic Mirror, How Isuro the Rabbit Tricked Gudu Ian, The Fox and the Wolf as well as The Two Caskets. The animals were definitely the best thing about this book as they were characters in their own right.
As the stories weren’t too long, I was able to easily take a break and resume with the next in line. Overall, ‘The Orange Fairy Book’ was a pleasant, breezy read. -
This is one of my favorite passages, in the story, "The Owl and The Eagle":
"...and the elder sister let down her hair till it hung over the witch's eyes, so that she might believe it was her own hair growing. Then the other [sister] brought a huge stone, and,in short, there was an end of the witch. The sisters were savages who had never seen a missionary."
Now, did Lang insert that little aside--and I wonder why there aren't more of such--the world of the fairy tale is brutal and bloody.
On to the next color! -
I read this book as part of the process of Project Gutenberg preparing the book to be posted on their site. Smooth readers are needed to help prepare ebooks for posting for free on the internet.
That being said, I loved this book. The stories were great fairy tales which have not been watered down like most of todays children's stories. I highly recommend reading these stories, better yet, read them aloud to a child. -
Lang's Orange volume has more stories from Ireland and Russia and Africa than just Grimms' repeats, so I like it a lot. Even so, most people who are interested in fairy tales would be best served by checking the series out at the library.
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can't find the goodreads match to the exact 1964 edition we just read, a thin hardcover with just a few of the stories and illustrated by Gertrude Espenscheid. No isbn, but a library of congress card #63-7808. enjoyed it thoroughly.
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Another interesting collection of fairy stories. The further "afield" they go, though, the more there is reference to the editing done and I have to wonder what is changed and how much culture ended up being elided in order to make them "appropriate."
