The Yellow Fairy Book is a wonderful collection of tales from all over the world. There are such familiar old favorites as the "Story of the Emperor's New Clothes," "The Tinder-box," "How to Tell a True Princess," and "The Nightingale." There are less familiar tales by Madame d'Aulnoy and from the collections of Andersen and Grimm. Many tales come from Hungary, Poland, and Russia, and there are German, French, and English stories, too. There are traditional tales of the American Indians, and three others come from Iceland.
All in all, this collection contains 48 stories, all narrated in the clear, lively prose for which Lang was famous. Not only are Lang's generally conceded to be the best English versions of standard stories, his collections are the richest and widest in range.
Table of Contents:
The Six Swans
The Dragon of the North
Story of the Emperor's New Clothes
The Golden Crab
The Iron Stove
The Dragon and his Grandmother
The Donkey Cabbage
The Little Green Frog
The Seven-headed Serpent
The Grateful Beasts
The Giants and the Herd-boy
The Invisible Prince
The Crow
How Six Men Travelled through the Wide World
The Wizard King
The Nixy
The Glass Mountain
"Alphege, or the Green Monkey"
Fairer-than-a Fairy
The Three Brothers
"The Boy and the Wolves, or the Broken Promise"
The Glass Axe
The Dead Wife
In the Land of Souls
The White Duck
The Witch and her Servants
The Magic Ring
The Flower Queens Daughter
The Flying Ship
The Snow-daughter and the Fire-son
The Story of King Frost
The Death of the Sun-hero
The Witch
The Hazel-nut Child
The Story of Big Klaus and Little Klaus
Prince Ring
The Swineherd
How to tell a True Princess
The Blue Mountains
The Tinder-box
The Witch in the Sone Boat
Thumbelina
The Nightingale
Hermod and Hadvor
The Steadfast Tin-soldier
Blockhead Hans
A Story about a Darning-needle