15 h 35 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 15 h 35 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a journey through the woods leads to a dangerous bargain—or a chance to change your fate?
The Blue Fairy Book, collected by Andrew Lang, brings together tales from several traditions, where ordinary life opens suddenly onto magic. A poor household, a royal palace, or a woodland journey becomes the starting point for something wonderful or dangerous. Familiar stories sit beside stranger adventures, with enchanted animals, clever children, and seemingly impossible quests.
In Cinderella, magical help offers a young woman a path beyond cruelty at home. Beauty and the Beast explores an unsettling encounter with a creature whose appearance inspires fear. Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp links poverty and ambition to a powerful object that draws dangerous attention. Across these stories, kindness, courage, and quick thinking can change a life.
What you’ll discover
- Familiar tales, darker edges Return to Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, where magic meets cruelty and fear.
- Power with a price Follow Aladdin into a tale where a magical object's power brings dangerous attention.
- More than one virtue Discover stories that favour generosity and patience, alongside others that reward boldness or a good trick.
- Wonder beyond the familiar Step from well-known tales into stranger adventures filled with enchanted animals and impossible quests.
- Ordinary lives, sudden magic Enter households, palaces, and woods where an unexpected encounter can change a person's fate.
Who will love it
Readers who love tales of magic, clever heroes, talking animals and enchanted castles, and anyone who wants to share stories aloud with children, friends or a quiet evening by the fire.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Rings, noses and a white bear
- Vain princesses and cruel enchantments
- Lamps, fears and a name to guess
- Giants, trolls and clever tricks
- Cats, flax and a monster's head
- Poor boys, sheep and woodcutters
- Siblings, flatterers and rewards for good manners
- Secret rooms, loyal servants and boasts
- Glass hills, fairies and a Scottish monster
- How the tales are told and what they share
Who’s who
- AladdinA poor idle boy in a Chinese city who finds a lamp and a ring that call genies, and wants to marry the sultan's daughter.
- BeautyThe youngest daughter of a ruined merchant, who goes to live with a fearsome Beast to keep her father's promise.
- CinderellaA kind girl made to work in the cinders by her stepmother and sisters, who longs to go to the prince's ball.
- The Brave Little TailorA small tailor who kills seven flies at one blow, stitches the boast on a belt, and sets out to seek his fortune.
- Puss in BootsA clever cat who asks for boots and a bag and schemes to make his poor master a marquis and a king's son-in-law.
- MorgianaThe quick-witted slave of Ali Baba, who sees through the forty thieves' disguises and protects her master's house.
- Hansel and GrettelA woodcutter's children, left in a forest by their parents, who must find their way home and outwit a witch.
- Dick WhittingtonA penniless orphan who comes to London hoping for streets of gold and works in a merchant's kitchen with only a cat.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 15 h 35 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Le Livre bleu des contes de fées
by Andrew Lang
Thirty-seven fairy tales, from a bronze ring and a white bear to a lamp genie and a brave tailor.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Blue Fairy Book is a gathering of thirty-seven fairy tales, edited by the Scottish writer Andrew Lang, who died in 1912. He drew the stories from many lands, from French court tales and German folk tales to Norwegian, Scottish, English and Arabian ones.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Rings, noses and a white bear
The book opens with The Bronze Ring. A king cannot make his garden grow until a wise old man tells him to find a gardener whose ancestors were gardeners too. The gardener's son wins the love of the princess, and the king sends him and a rival, the minister's son, on a long journey to see who returns first. The gardener's son shares his purse with a beggar woman at a fountain, while the minister's son drives her away.
The beggar woman repays the kindness with a strange plan to cure an old king and win a bronze ring that grants any wish. The ring gives the young man a golden ship, with silver masts and brocade sails, and a crew dressed like kings. He uses it to answer the minister's son in a harsh way, branding him with the ring. Later a sorcerer steals the ring with a trick.
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What is The Blue Fairy Book about?
It is a collection of thirty-seven fairy tales from many countries, edited by Andrew Lang. The stories include Cinderella, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Grettel, Puss in Boots and many less familiar tales of magic, giants and clever heroes.
Who was Andrew Lang?
Andrew Lang was a Scottish writer and folklorist who died in 1912. He collected and edited fairy tales from many lands, and The Blue Fairy Book was the first of a long series of colored fairy books for young readers.
Where do the stories in The Blue Fairy Book come from?
They come from several traditions. Many are French court tales, others are German folk tales, Norwegian, Scottish and English stories, and tales from the Arabian Nights. This mix gives readers a wide look at how fairy tales travel.
The author
Andrew Lang
1844–1912 · Scottish poet and folklorist
Andrew Lang was a Scottish writer born in Selkirk in 1844. He lived in London and died in Banchory in 1912. He wrote poetry, novels, literary criticism, and works on folklore. He edited The Blue Fairy Book, published in 1889, and other fairy-book collections, including The Violet Fairy Book in 1901.
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