Herein you will find 25 of Euope's finest fairy tales. This was the sixth and last time that the famous folklorist Joseph Jacobs teamed up with the equally famous illustrator John D. Batten to produce yet another volume of exquisite fairy tales. Not only exquisitely told, but also exquisitely illustrated with 48 BnW illustrations. Created especially for his granddaughter, Peggy, here you will find the tales of THE CINDER-MAID, ALL CHANGE, THE KING OF THE FISHES, SCISSORS, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, REYNARD AND BRUIN, THE DANCING WATER, THE SINGING APPLE, AND THE SPEAKING BIRD, THE EARL OF CATTENBOROUGH, THE UNSEEN BRIDEGROOM, THE MASTER-MAID and many more. In this volume Jacobs brought together these common Folk-Tales of Europe, retold in such a way as to bring out the original form from which all the variants were derived. So if the tales herein seem a little different to the tales you remember, it's because these have been re-translated and more of the original has been retained with regional and national variations being kept to an absolute minimum. This may lead to children crying out "That was not the way you told us before."
That's because these tales are closer to the originals than previously published. In explanation, Jacobs has included sixty eight pages of explanatory notes detailing his methodology and the differences.