The Gift of the Magician

Author: (English) Andrew Lang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: This set of fairy tales was first released in 1891, named after 12 colors such as red, yellow, blue, etc. Considering the reading habits of Chinese children, we have re-edited and organized these fairy tales, naming them as follows: The True Prince and the False Prince, The Knight of the Golden Fish, The Witch on the Stone Ship, Blue Bird, The Invincible Hero, The Wonderful Musician, Gulliver's Travels, The Snow Queen, The Elves in the Baker's Bag, The Gift of the Magician, The Death of the Sun God, and The Magic Ring. Fairy tales are beautiful stories, and they are the happy kingdom of children. Children everywhere in the world love fairy tales. Under the moonlight, in the shade of trees, or by the fire, they snuggle close to their grandmothers and mothers, listening to them tell one beautiful story after another with great passion. Gradually, they form their own concepts of beauty and ugliness, good and evil, justice and wickedness. These treasures of folk tales, passed down orally from generation to generation, were first carefully compiled by the famous French fairy-tale writer Perrault, forming a collection of up to 60 volumes titled The Bookcase of Fairy Tales. Later, Andrew Lang, a renowned Scottish writer and anthropologist, was captivated by this collection of human wisdom, The Bookcase of Fairy Tales, and with the help of his wife, translated, organized, and edited these fairy tales. They were first released in 1891, named after 12 colors such as red, yellow, and blue. Since then, they have been continuously republished and have become one of the classic best-selling fairy-tale series in the world. A famous Western educator once commented on Andrew Lang's edited fairy tales: "If children's lives were without those magical and beautiful fairy tales, their lives would be unimaginable; if this fairy-tale paradise did not include the fairy tales written by Andrew Lang, their innocent hearts would not be perfectly shaped." Due to information discrepancies in cultural transmission, Chinese children have only been able to enter the world of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. In fact, in the Western world, which places great emphasis on using fairy tales to educate children in morality and life, Andrew Lang's collected and translated fairy tales have brought children beautiful dreams and endless joy.
Compared to The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen and Grimms' Fairy Tales, Andrew Lang's selected fairy tales are more comprehensive and representative. He compiled nearly 500 traditional myths and classic fairy tales from all over the world, allowing children to read the authentic, concentrated wisdom of fairy tales from various ethnic groups. This set of fairy tales tells the legends of various characters from different perspectives, featuring imaginary fairies, witches, demons, monsters, and dragons, as well as cruel stepmothers, beautiful or ugly princesses, lucky or unlucky princes, giants, dwarfs, and various magical spells and sorcery. The stories often begin with characters that children love—such as an old man with a blue beard, a little cat in boots, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and even the grumpy toad and the beautiful pearl. Children can also enjoy 900 exquisite illustrations by the world-famous illustrator Henry Ford in these 12 books. After years of careful translation and editing, Andrew Lang and his world-class fairy tales have finally met with the children of China! Considering the reading habits of Chinese children, we have reorganized and edited these fairy tales into 12 volumes, naming them as follows: Magic Mirror, Copper Ring, Blue Bird, Headless Dwarf, Green Knight, Glass Mountain, Mayflower Princess, Little Fairy, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Prince, Aladdin's Magic Lamp, and Iron Wand. We sincerely hope that this treasure trove of world fairy tales will accompany children through an interesting and imaginative childhood!