Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME
- CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE AND MAJOR WORKS OF ANDREW LANG
- A NOTE ON THE TEXT
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- 1 THE METHOD OF FOLKLORE
- 2 ANTHROPOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
- 3 FAIRY TALES
- ‘Literary Fairy Tales’, Introduction to Frederik van Eeden's Little Johannes (1895)
- ‘Perrault's Popular Tales’, Introduction to Perrault's Popular Tales (1888)
- ‘Introduction’, The Blue Fairy Book (1889)
- ‘Introduction’, The Red Fairy Book (1890)
- ‘Preface’, The Green Fairy Book (1892)
- ‘Preface’, The Yellow Fairy Book (1894)
- ‘Preface’, The Pink Fairy Book (1897)
- ‘Preface’, The Lilac Fairy Book (1910)
- 4 ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION
- 5 ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- 6 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- APPENDIX I: NAMES FREQUENTLY CITED BY LANG
- APPENDIX II: ETHINIC GROUPS CITED BY LANG
- EXPLANATORY NOTES
- Index
‘Preface’, The Yellow Fairy Book (1894)
from 3 - FAIRY TALES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME
- CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE AND MAJOR WORKS OF ANDREW LANG
- A NOTE ON THE TEXT
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- 1 THE METHOD OF FOLKLORE
- 2 ANTHROPOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
- 3 FAIRY TALES
- ‘Literary Fairy Tales’, Introduction to Frederik van Eeden's Little Johannes (1895)
- ‘Perrault's Popular Tales’, Introduction to Perrault's Popular Tales (1888)
- ‘Introduction’, The Blue Fairy Book (1889)
- ‘Introduction’, The Red Fairy Book (1890)
- ‘Preface’, The Green Fairy Book (1892)
- ‘Preface’, The Yellow Fairy Book (1894)
- ‘Preface’, The Pink Fairy Book (1897)
- ‘Preface’, The Lilac Fairy Book (1910)
- 4 ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION
- 5 ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- 6 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- APPENDIX I: NAMES FREQUENTLY CITED BY LANG
- APPENDIX II: ETHINIC GROUPS CITED BY LANG
- EXPLANATORY NOTES
- Index
Summary
The Editor thinks that children will readily forgive him for publishing another Fairy Book. We have had the Blue, the Red, the Green, and here is the Yellow. If children are pleased, and they are so kind as to say that they are pleased, the Editor does not care very much for what other people may say. Now, there is one gentleman who seems to think that it is not quite right to print so many fairy tales, with pictures, and to publish them in red and blue covers. He is named Mr. G. Laurence Gomme, and he is president of a learned body called the Folk Lore Society. Once a year he makes his address to his subjects, of whom the Editor is one, and Mr. Joseph Jacobs (who has published many delightful fairy tales with pretty pictures) is another. Fancy, then, the dismay of Mr. Jacobs, and of the Editor, when they heard their president say that he did not think it very nice in them to publish fairy books, above all, red, green, and blue fairy books! They said that they did not see any harm in it, and they were ready to ‘put themselves on their country,’ and be tried by a jury of children. And, indeed, they still see no harm in what they have done; nay, like Father William in the poem, they are ready ‘to do it again and again.’
Where is the harm? The truth is that the Folk Lore Society—made up of the most clever, learned, and beautiful men and women of the country— is fond of studying the history and geography of Fairy Land. This is contained in very old tales, such as country people tell, and savages:
‘Little Sioux and little Crow,
Little frosty Eskimo.’
These people are thought to know most about fairyland and its inhabitants. But, in the Yellow Fairy Book, and the rest, are many tales by persons who are neither savages nor rustics, such as Madame D'Aulnoy and Herr Hans Christian Andersen. The Folk Lore Society, or its president, say that their tales are not so true as the rest, and should not be published with the rest.
- Type
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- Information
- The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Selected Writings of Andrew LangAnthropology, Fairy Tale, Folklore, The Origins of Religion, Psychical Research, pp. 160 - 161Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2015