Best Loved Literary Fairy Tales
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BEST- LOVED LITERARY FAIRY TALES gathered and edited by Sheila Carroll LIVING BOOKS PRESSTM MOUNT PLEASANT, MICHIGAN LIVING BOOKS PRESSTM Publishers of classic living books 5497 Gilmore Road Mt. Pleasant, Michigan 48858 www.livingbookscurriculum.com © 2009 Living Books Press Design and prepress by Carrousel Graphics, Jackson, Wyoming ISBN-13: 978-0-9818093-0-4 Printed in the United States of America. Table of Contents EDITOR’S PREFACE ....................................................................... IV THE BOX OF ROBBERS ...................................................................1 L. FRANK BAUM THE RAT-CATCHER’S DAUGHTER ................................................12 LAURENCE HOUSMAN A CHINESE FAIRY TALE ..............................................................21 LAURENCE HOUSEMAN THE GOLDEN KEY ......................................................................31 GEORGE MACDONALD THE LIGHT PRINCESS ..................................................................66 GEORGE MACDONALD THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER ............................................. 118 JOHN RUSKIN THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE AND HIS TRAVELLING CLOAK ..........157 DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK PETER PAN IN KENSINGTON GARDENS ......................................251 J. M. BARRIE THE MAGIC FISHBONE ..............................................................308 CHARLES DICKENS THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN ....................................................329 ROBERT BROWNING THE REAL PRINCESS ..................................................................352 HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON THE RELUCTANT DRAGON ........................................................354 KENNETH GRAHAME THE SELFISH GIANT ..................................................................383 OSCAR WILDE BIOGRAPHIES .............................................................................390 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ...........................................................399 BEST LOVED LITERARY TALES ARE LITERARY FAIRY TALES FOR TODAY? Editor’s Preface The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.” J.R.R. Tolkien, from “On Fairy-Stories” “Sometimes fairy stories say best what’s to be said.” C. S. Lewis, from Of This and Other Worlds Congratulations. You are about to enter the realm of fairy tales—literary fairy tales. Travelers new to this world sometimes miss the distinction between a traditional fairy tale and a literary fairy tale. The traditional fairy tale is the result of many voices, many tellings over long periods of time. Consider Cinderella. There are 345 known variants of the tale of the kitchen maid who, through supernatural intervention, marries well and lives “happily ever after”. And yet, each is the same story. On the other hand, literary fairy tales are, well...literary. They do not allow for variants. The literary fairy tale is a consciously created work that draws on the motifs and themes of traditional fairy tales and is written by one author. For example, Laurence Houseman’s A Chinese Fairy Tale begins, Tiki-pu was a small grub of a thing; but he had a true love of Art deep down in his soul. It would be difficult to imagine rewriting this line in any other way. Its beauty lies in just those words, put just that way. It is the author’s use of language that matters. Yet, for all the loveliness of expression, in order for a work of fiction to be called a literary fairy tale, the author must demonstrate a respect for the form of the fairy tale: its firm requirements that good iv BEST LOVED LITERARY TALES ARE LITERARY FAIRY TALES FOR TODAY? overcome evil, right action be rewarded, and help comes from beyond the ordinary. There is yet one more thing the literary fairy tale does that sets it apart. It is the way it has of embracing big ideas. Big ideas wrestle with questions of the nature and purpose of our lives now and in the hereafter. This is what I love most about literary fairy tales. They put us in touch with these questions in a way that makes us think, mends hearts and offers inspiration. Among my favorites is The Golden Key by George MacDonald. In it, Mossy and Tangle undertake a quest that leads them into Fairyland and beyond. The story opens with a question: There was a boy who used to sit in the twilight and listen to his great-aunt’s stories. She told him that if he could reach the place where the end of the rainbow stands he would find there a golden key. “And what is the key for?” the boy would ask. “What is it the key of? What will it open?” “That nobody knows,” his aunt would reply. “He has to find that out.” “I suppose, being gold,” the boy once said, thoughtfully, “that I could get a good deal of money for it if I sold it.” “Better never find it than sell it,” returned his aunt. Like Mossy, we must find where the rainbow leads. It is also where the literary fairy tale leads—into an open space where things are seen as they are and the big ideas can be better understood. Living Books Press has set forth a collection of some of the best and best-loved literary fairy tales. There are more to discover beyond these pages. You will find clues to where they are in v BEST LOVED LITERARY TALES ARE LITERARY FAIRY TALES FOR TODAY? Additional Resources. My hope is that you will enjoy these stories and read still further in the land of fairy tales. Reading them does not require you to be young in years, only young in heart and mind. Sheila Carroll Editor vi THE BOX OF ROBBERS L. FRANK BAUM The Box of Robbers L. Frank Baum From American Fairy Tales No one intended to leave Martha alone that afternoon, but it happened that everyone was called away, for one reason or another. Mrs. McFarland was attending the weekly card party held by the Women’s Anti-Gambling League. Sister Nell’s young man had called quite unexpectedly to take her for a long drive. Papa was at the office, as usual. It was Mary Ann’s day out. As for Emeline, she certainly should have stayed in the house and looked after the little girl; but Emeline had a restless nature. “Would you mind, miss, if I just crossed the alley to speak a word to Mrs. Carleton’s girl?” she asked Martha. “’Course not,” replied the child. “You’d better lock the back door, though, and take the key, for I shall be upstairs.” “Oh, I’ll do that, of course, miss,” said the delighted maid, and ran away to spend the afternoon with her friend, leaving Martha quite alone in the big house, and locked in, into the bargain. The little girl read a few pages in her new book, sewed a few stitches in her embroidery and started to “play visiting” with her four favorite dolls. Then she remembered that in the attic was a doll’s playhouse that hadn’t been used for months, so she decided she would dust it and put it in order. Filled with this idea, the girl climbed the winding stairs to the big room under the roof. It was well lighted by three dormer windows and was warm and pleasant. Around the walls were rows of boxes and trunks, piles of old carpeting, pieces of damaged furniture, bundles of discarded clothing and other 1 THE BOX OF ROBBERS L. FRANK BAUM odds and ends of more or less value. Every well-regulated house has an attic of this sort, so I need not describe it. The doll’s house had been moved, but after a search Martha found it away over in a corner near the big chimney. She drew it out and noticed that behind it was a black wooden chest which Uncle Walter had sent over from Italy years and years ago—before Martha was born, in fact. Mamma had told her about it one day; how there was no key to it, because Uncle Walter wished it to remain unopened until he returned home; and how this wandering uncle, who was a mighty hunter, had gone into Africa to hunt elephants and had never been heard from afterwards. The little girl looked at the chest curiously, now that it had by accident attracted her attention. It was quite big—bigger even than mamma’s traveling trunk—and was studded all over with tarnished brassheaded nails. It was heavy, too, for when Martha tried to lift one end of 2 THE BOX OF ROBBERS L. FRANK BAUM it she found she could not stir it a bit. But there was a place in the side of the cover for a key. She stooped to examine the lock, and saw that it would take a rather big key to open it. Then, as you may suspect, the little girl longed to open Uncle Walter’s big box and see what was in it. For we are all curious, and little girls are just as curious as the rest of us. “I don’t b’lieve Uncle Walter’ll ever come back,” she thought. “Papa said once that some elephant must have killed him. If I only had a key—” She stopped and clapped her little hands together gayly as she remembered a big basket of keys on the shelf in the linen closet. They were of all sorts and sizes; perhaps one of them would unlock the mysterious chest! She flew down the stairs, found the basket and returned with it to the attic. Then she sat down before the brass-studded box and began trying one key after another in the curious old lock. Some were too large, but most were too small. One would go into the lock but would not turn; another stuck so fast that she feared for a time that she would never get it out again. But at last, when the basket was almost empty, an oddly-shaped, ancient brass key slipped easily into the lock. With a cry of joy Martha turned the key with both hands; then she heard a sharp “click,” and the next moment the heavy lid flew up of its own accord! The little girl leaned over the edge of the chest an instant, and the sight that met her eyes caused her to start back in amazement.