The Orange Fairy Book

The Orange Fairy Book

By Various

Edited by Andrew Lang

The children who read fairy books, or have fairy books read to them, do not read prefaces, and the parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, who give fairy books to their daughters, nieces, and cousins, leave prefaces unread. For whom, then, are prefaces written? When an author publishes a book 'out of his own head, ' he writes the preface for his own pleasure. After reading over his book in print--to make sure that all the 'u's' are not printed as 'n's, ' and all the 'n's' as 'u's' in the proper names--then the author says, mildly, in his preface, what he thinks about his own book, and what he means it to prove--if he means it to prove anything--and why it is not a better book than it is. But, perhaps, nobody reads prefaces except other authors; and critics, who hope that they will find enough in the preface to enable them to do without reading any of the book.

This appears to be the philosophy of prefaces in general, and perhaps authors might be more daring and candid than they are with advantage, and write regular criticisms of their own books in their prefaces, for nobody can be so good a critic of himself as the author--if he has a sense of humour. If he has not, the less he says in his preface the better.

CONTENTS



The Story of the Hero MakomaThe Magic MirrorStory of the King Who Would See ParadiseHow Isuro the Rabbit Tricked GuduIan, the Soldier's SonThe Fox and the WolfHow Ian Direach Got the Blue FalconThe Ugly DucklingThe Two CasketsThe Goldsmith's FortuneThe Enchanted WreathThe Foolish WeaverThe Clever CatThe Story of ManusPinkel the ThiefThe Adventures of a JackalThe Adventures of the Jackal's Eldest SonThe Adventures of the Younger Son of the JackalThe Three Treasures of the GiantsThe Rover of the PlainThe White DoeThe Girl-FishThe Owl and the EagleThe Frog and the Lion FairyThe Adventures of Covan the Brown-HairedThe Princess Bella-FlorThe Bird of TruthThe Mink and the WolfAdventures of an Indian BraveHow the Stalos Were TrickedAndras BaiveThe White SlipperThe Magic Book