The Fir-Tree Fairy Book: Favorite Fairy Tales by Johnson and Popini (Illustrated)

✍ Scribed by Clifton Johnson

• Book ID: 110600688
• Year: 1912
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 8 MB
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

IN the volumes that make up this series of fairy books are to be
found the favorite wonder tales of many nations in a version
especially suited for the home fireside. The interest, the charm and
all the sweetness of the stories have been retained, but savagery,
distressing details and excessive pathos have been dropped, and
the books can be read aloud or placed in the hands of children with
entire confidence.
The reasons for such changes as I have made in the stories are
perhaps self-evident. Surely, most parents and teachers will agree
that our little people are better off without some of the sentiments of
the barbaric past when the tales originated. We can well spare most
of the spectacles of falsehood, gluttony, drunkenness, torture and
gore that are found in the usual tellings, and we can get along
without the cruel fathers and wicked stepmothers. Civilization and
culture have advanced vastly since the time when the stories started.
Our primal instincts are more controlled, and law, education and
ethics mean vastly more. The necessity therefore seems clear for
softening or changing the crude ideals and doubtful morals and
coarseness that have so often survived in the old stories.
The tales are drawn from many sources, and usually are the result
of a comparison of several versions, and a combination of the best
features of these versions into a simple straightforward whole such
as children will read with understanding and pleasure.