The Pink Fairy Book

Andrew Lang was famous for his ‘Rainbow Fairy Books’ and generations of children including our introducer, the novelist A. S. Byatt, grew up reading these enchanting, and occasionally disturbing, stories. For The Pink Fairy Book, Lang drew upon a range of cultures and traditions, bringing together 41 stories from Japan, Scandinavia, Africa, Sicily and Catalonia, as well as enduring favourites including ‘The Snow Queen’ by Hans Christian Andersen and ‘The House in the Wood’ by the Brothers Grimm. Many had never appeared in any English collection before and Lang had them translated and sympathetically retold. Here, gruesome stories (a princess possessed by a demon devours her guards) have their place alongside unashamedly comic ones (three merry wives play tricks on their husbands to determine which is the most stupid) and an occasional tragic tale (the little, much-loved snow child melts away in the fire’s heat).