2 h 59 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when ordinary children meet the strange creatures and small magical people of elf-land?
In Fairy Dreams, Jane G. Austin gathers six fairy tales around magic, quests, and wonder. Ordinary children share this world with small magical people and strange creatures. These are stories of wandering, where a meeting can bring a choice between kindness and selfishness, and the unfamiliar invites a closer look.
The pleasure lies in exploring rather than rushing ahead. Austin’s tales belong to a tradition of children’s stories set in elf-land, with clear sentences and bright pictures in words. Wonder and simple choices sit side by side, giving parents and young readers something to talk about as they follow each wandering path.
What you’ll discover
- Wanderings in elf-land Enter a fairy world where ordinary children encounter magical people and strange creatures.
- Kindness or selfishness Follow simple choices that give these tales something to ponder alongside their magic.
- Magic, quests, and wonder Explore six tales whose promise is discovery, with room to wander along the way.
- Stories to share aloud Let clear sentences and bright word pictures invite a child into each scene.
- An older storytelling pace Settle into a slower manner of storytelling, rooted in nineteenth-century American children’s writing.
Who will love it
For readers who love old-fashioned fairy tales, enchanted gardens and sea kingdoms, and for parents and teachers who want gentle stories of courage and kindness to read aloud one evening at a time.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A prince seeks a flower he cannot name
- A lonely girl believes in a fairy king
- A gray cat asks a hermit for help
- A boy follows the pictures on the frost
- A sailor is rocked to sleep by mermaids
- A fisherman's son carries Christmas to the castle
Who’s who
- Prince RudolfA king's son who sets out with a magic veil and a diamond spear to find a flower he saw only in dreams.
- MabelA lonely charcoal burner's daughter who loves fairy tales and longs to meet King Tolv on midsummer night.
- ErnestA young man who lives alone by the sea and goes in search of the Cave of the Four Winds to help a cat princess.
- Princess PheliaA princess of Catland, bound in cat form by a rival enchantress, who needs a young man to win back her crown.
- ClaudeA boy who sees a palace and a maiden in the frost on his window and spends his life looking for them.
- SulemairA mermaid princess who sings a sailor down to her palace and then hopes to trade her sea life for earth.
- VeriaA grieving girl in a wood who offers to make a bold sacrifice if a stranger can save her father.
- FritzchenA fisherman's small, cheerful son who obeys duty on Christmas Day and carries gifts and candles through the snow.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 2 h 59 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 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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Fairy Dreams
by Jane G. Austin · 1859
A prince with a magic veil and a diamond spear hunts for a flower he cannot remember.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Fairy Dreams is a book of six fairy tales by Jane G. Austin, an American writer who died in 1894.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A prince seeks a flower he cannot name
The first tale opens at noon in the palace of King Merowald. The aged king asks whether anyone wants a favor, and his only son, Prince Rudolf, kneels before the throne. Rudolf wants leave to search the world for a flower he has dreamed of for seven nights. He cannot recall its shape, color, scent or name, yet he is sure he would know it at once, and he says he cannot live without it.
The king sends him to the wise Althoso, who works in a tower room above the door of a crooked dwarf. Althoso will not name the flower or say where it grows, because a prize handed over is soon forgotten. Instead he gives Rudolf two gifts. The first is a white veil, to be thrown over any flower that might be the one. If it stays white and whole, Rudolf must sleep beside the flower before he picks it, and if it is soiled or torn, he must flee.
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What is Fairy Dreams about?
It is a collection of six fairy tales by Jane G. Austin. Each tells of a quest or a longing, from a prince seeking a dream flower to a boy following frost pictures and a sailor taken to a sea kingdom.
What are the six stories in Fairy Dreams?
They are Prince Rudolf's Flower, König Tolv's Bride, The Gray Cat and the Cave of the Winds, The Frost-Maiden, Under the Sea and The Castle on the Cliff. Each stands alone and can be read in one sitting.
Who are the Four Winds in the gray cat story?
They are four brothers who share a cave on a snowy peak. Boreas is the North Wind, Zephyrus the West, Auster the South and Eurus the East, and each has his own table, food, mood and mouthpiece on a magic flute.
The author
Jane G. Austin
1831–1894 · American novelist
Jane G. Austin (1831–1894) was an American writer born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her full name was Jane Goodwin Austin. She wrote novels and stories, including historical fiction about the Plymouth colonists. Her books included Fairy Dreams, published in 1859, and Standish of Standish, published in 1889. She died in Boston.
More by Jane G. Austin
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