Favorite Fairy Tales

This book of favorite fairy tales was compiled and illustrated by Peter Newell. it includes Jack The Giant Killer; Cinderella; Sleeping Beauty; Little Red Riding Hood; Aladin and the Wonderful Lamp, The Ugly Duckling, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and Rose Red, The Wild Swans, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, and 4 others that are not so famous. The stories included were based upon the those that various famous men remembered as their favorites when children(Summary by Phil Chenevert)

Favorite Fairy Tales

This is a collection of the fairy tales that children love best, told in simple language and lavishly illustrated. They are written by various authors, a selection of the best and most popular fairy stories, culled from many sources and here collected and presented in most attractive form, printed in large clear type, with many pictures, some of them colored. (Summary from the book) Read along and view the illustrations at Project Gutenberg

Favorite Fairy Tales Retold

In this volume, Ms. Cowles has collected her favourite fairy tales and retold them for children. All of the most famous authors are represented, such as Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. But instead of retelling all the standard tales, Ms. Cowles has chosen fairy tales that are not quite as famous, but contain an important message. – Summary by Carolin

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods

A limbless reptilian monster that propels itself through the swamps with a propellor-tipped tail? A creature so ashamed of its monstrous appearance that it dissolves into tears when captured? Learn about the snoligoster, the squonk and many other ‘fearsome critters’ in this field guide written and illustrated by two North American foresters who know them well. Listeners who suspect that these creatures are the stuff of tall tales, will nevertheless do well to look out for slide-rock bolters when vacationing in the Colorado mountains. – Summary by Phil Benson

Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale Collection

These are 25 fairy tales written by Hans Christian Andersen – A collection of something for everyone – the very popular stories, the less well-known stories and favorites, that both children and grownups can enjoy. (Summary by Neeru Iyer)

Il ?tait une fois… – 002 (contes pour enfants)

Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault et les fr?res Grimm, pour ne nommer que ceux-l? : autant d?auteurs d?exception dont les contes et autres histoires ont captiv? des g?n?rations d?enfants, petits et grands. Dans le second volume de cette collection d?histoires et de contes pr?f?r?s des enfants, vous d?couvrirez (ou red?crouvrirez) vingt de ces r?cits, tant?t tr?s populaires, tant?t moins connus. Ouvrez toutes grandes vos oreilles, et laissez-vous transporter! (Description par ani)

LibriVox 7th Anniversary Collection

To celebrate the 7 years of LibriVox , readers from all around the world have recorded 77 works they have selected, all of which have 7 in their title. We hope you enjoy the amazing mixture they have come up with.

Myths and Legends Around the World – Collection 04

This collection is dedicated to recordings of short mythical or legendary works which are in the Public Domain. The stories tell of legends, heroes, myths, and ancient lore from many different cultures. (Lynette Caulkins)

Myths and Legends Around the World – Collection 05

This collection is dedicated to recordings of short mythical or legendary works which are in the Public Domain. The stories tell of legends, heroes, myths, and ancient lore from many different cultures. (Summary by Lynette Caulkins)

Myths and Legends Around the World – Collection 06

You get to choose what you want to read! (All recordings in English]) So long as the source is Public Domain for you, any short story or chapter that tells of legends, heroes, myths, or ancient lore, is welcome. We are looking for representations of many different cultures within each collection. If you have questions of whether a source is Public Domain for you (remember that if you live outside the U.S., public domain laws may be more strict for you), I recommend asking about that in this project’s discussion before you begin recording. Simply post the question with a link to the source you’ve found. 🙂 Limit of 2 sections per reader in a given Myths & Legends collection. – Summary by Lynette Caulkins

Myths and Legends Around the World – Collection 09

This collection is dedicated to recordings of short mythical or legendary works which are in the Public Domain. The stories tell of legends, heroes, myths, and ancient lore from many different cultures. (Summary by Lynette Caulkins)

Myths and Legends Around the World – Collection 13

This collection is dedicated to recordings of short mythical or legendary works which are in the Public Domain. The stories tell of legends, heroes, myths, and ancient lore from many different cultures. (Summary by Lynette Caulkins)

Myths and Legends Around the World – Collection 14

This collection is dedicated to recordings of short mythical or legendary works which are in the Public Domain. The stories tell of legends, heroes, myths, and ancient lore from many different cultures. (Summary by Lynette Caulkins)

The Adventures of Diggeldy Dan

Diggeldy Dan (rhymes with Wiggildy Wan) is a most ingenious fellow who lives in a circus called Spangleland. He looks like a clown because he perhaps is a clown but a very special clown who invites the Pretty Lady with the Blue Blue Eyes (a very special person herself) to meet with the animals of the circus. Many things happen that are just too amazing to talk about because you won’t believe them but if you read this book you will perhaps learn that fun is inside all of us. The writing is adult, not childlike, and easy to understand. – Summary by phil chenevert

The Adventures of Pinocchio

The Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi (here transl. by Carol della Chiesa). The first half was published in serial form between 1881 and 1883, and then completed as a book for children in February 1883. It is about the mischievous adventures of Pinocchio, an animated marionette, and his poor father, a woodcarver named Geppetto. It is considered a classic of children?s literature and has spawned many derivative works of art, such as Disney?s classic 1940 animated movie of the same name, and commonplace ideas, such as a liar?s long nose. (Summary from Wikipedia)

The Adventures of Pinocchio (version 2)

Do today’s children still learn what a “marionette” is? The beloved story of Pinocchio may represent a last lingering picture of a world not dominated by plastic or electronic toys. Pinocchio is a puppet made from a piece of wood that curiously could talk even before being carved. A wooden-head he starts and a wooden-head he stays – until after years of misadventures caused by his laziness and failure to keep promises he finally learns to care about his family – and then he becomes a real boy. For those who have seen the Disney movie the cast of characters will be familiar, from the Talking Cricket (who acts as his conscience) to Lamp-Wick, his partner in truancy and having heedless fun. Though the toys of today are far from the puppet shows in Carlo Collodi’s book, his themes of being truthful, thoughtful, and dependable will always be timely. (Summary by Mark)

The Aesop for Children

A collection of Aesop’s fables for children from the classic American book illustrated by Milo Winter. Read along and see the illustrations at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19994. (Summary by Jill Engle)

The Age of Chivalry

Thomas Bulfinch explains the his work is “an attempt to tell the stories of mythology in such a manner as to make them a source of amusement. We have endeavored to tell them correctly, according to the ancient authorities, so that when the reader finds them referred to he may not be at a loss to recognize the reference. Thus we hope to teach mythology not as a study, but as a relaxation from study; to give our work the charm of a story-book, yet by means of it to impart a knowledge of an important branch of education.” The Bulfinch version of myth, presents the myths in their literary versions, without unnecessary violence, sex, psychology or ethnographic information. The Bulfinch myths are an indispensable guide to the cultural values of the American 19th century. (Summary from Wikipedia)

The Algonquin Legends of New England or Myths and Folk Lore of the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Tribes

This work, then, contains a collection of the myths, legends, and folk-lore of the principal Wabanaki, or Northeastern Algonquin, Indians; that is to say, of the Passamaquoddies and Penobscots of Maine, and of the Micmacs of New Brunswick. All of this material was gathered directly from Indian narrators, the greater part by myself, the rest by a few friends; in fact, I can give the name of the aboriginal authority for every tale except one. (Summary by Charles Godfrey Leland)

The Angels of Mons

The Angels of Mons is a popular legend about a group of angels who supposedly protected members of the British army in the Battle of Mons at the outset of World War I. The story is fictitious, developed through a combination of a patriotic short story by Arthur Machen, rumours, mass hysteria and urban legend, claimed visions after the battle and also possibly deliberately seeded propaganda. (Summary by Wikipedia)

The Blue Bird: A Fairy Play in Six Acts

The Blue Bird is a 1908 play by Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck. On the night of Christmas a boy and a girl, Tyltil and Mytil, are visited by Fairy Berilyuna. Fairy’s granddaughter is sick and can only be saved by the Blue Bird. Thanks to the Fairy’s magic gift children have the opportunity to see the soul of things. Inanimate objects Clocks, Fire, Water, Bread, Sugar, Milk transformed into beings with their own character. Together, they set off on a dangerous journey for the fabulous Blue Bird. The play is inspired with the deep idea of the author “be brave enough to see the hidden.” – Summary by ShiNeko, Wikipedia Cast List: Tyltyl: KHand Mytyl/ The Child One: Beth Thomas The Fairy/ The Neighbour: Kathy Wright The Dog/ Granny Tyl/ Gaffer Tyl: Ron Altman The Cat: ToddHW Light / the little Girl: Amanda Friday Bread/ The Loaf: tovarisch Fire: Chuck Williamson Water: Sarah Alaine Swart Sugar: Mary Kay Milk: Etel Buss Daddy Tyl/ The Oak/ The Luxury: Arnaldo Machado Mummy Tyl/ Maternal Love: Rebecca Braunert-Plunkett The Brothers and Sisters Tyl: Megan Clavie-Parker, April Walters, Lydia, MaryAnnS, TriciaG, Tomas Peter Night/ The Child Thirteen: Availle The Poplar/ The Sheep: Frances Brown The Lime-Tree/ The Child Ten: Elizabeth Klett The Willow/ The Joy of Understanding: Etel Buss The Fir-Tree: Ashur Gharavi The Chestnut-Tree/ The Ass: Mark Chulsky The Beech/ The Elm/ The Child Seven/ The Child Twelve: Phil Chenevert The Cypress: Amy Gramour The Ivy/ The Child Eleven: April Walters The Rabbit / The First Child of Lovers: Sarah Alaine Swart The Cock: David Purdy The Horse/ The Child Three: MaryAnnS The Bull: Algy Pug The Ox: Oxenhandler The Cow/ The Child Fifteen: Lydia The Pig: Miriam Esther Goldman The Wolf: Dillon McFarlane The Happiness: Savannah The Joy of Being Just: Valerie Becker The Joy of seeing what is Beautiful: Little Tee The Child Two /The Second Child of Lovers: Rosslyn Carlyle The Child Four: Sarah Jennings The Child Five/ The Child with the Melons: TriciaG The Child Six: Abby The Child Eight: Rachel The Child Fourteen: Tomas Peter The Child Sixteen: Saffie Time: Jason Mills Stage Directions: MaryAnnS, Anastasiia Solokha Editors: TriciaG , MaryAnnS and Anastasiia Solokha

The Blue Fairy Book

Andrew Lang’s Blue Fairy Book (1889) was a beautifully produced and illustrated edition of fairy tales that has become a classic. This was followed by many other collections of fairy tales, collectively known as Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books. (Wikipedia)

The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights), Volume 01

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection’s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the first of sixteen volumes translated by Burton. (Based on Wikipedia article)

The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights), Volume 02

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection’s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the second of sixteen volumes translated by Burton. (based on Wikipedia article)

The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights), Volume 03

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection’s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the third of sixteen volumes translated by Burton. (based on Wikipedia article)

The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights), Volume 04

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. They are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection’s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the third of sixteen volumes translated by Burton. (based on Wikipedia article) Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 5 and Volume 6

The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights), Volume 05

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. They are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found, but several versions date the collection?s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the first of sixteen volumes translated by Richard Francis Burton. (Summary based on Wikipedia article and LibriVox’s The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 01)) Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4 and Volume 6

The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights), Volume 06

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. They are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found, but several versions date the collection?s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the sixth of sixteen volumes translated by Richard Francis Burton. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia)

The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights), Volume 07

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. They are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found, but several versions date the collection?s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the seventh of sixteen volumes translated by Richard Francis Burton. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia)

The Book of Dragons

A dragon who flies out of a magical book; one whose purr quiets a fussy baby; another who eats an entire pack of tame hunting-hippopotomuses: These eight dragon tales are filled with the imaginative wit of children’s author Edith Nesbit. (Summary by Laurie Anne Walden)

The Book of Elves and Fairies for Story-Telling and Reading Aloud

Lots of stories and poems about elves, faeries and other wonderful wee folk. All read for you by LibriVox people who love them so what more could you ask for? If you want a break from the harsh ‘real’ world, come relax for awhile in fairyland where troubles are solved by magic and perhaps a kiss or two. (phil c)

The Book of Good Counsels – From the Sanskrit of the “Hitopadesa”

The term ?Hitopadesha? is a combination of two Sanskrit terms, ?Hita? (welfare/ benefit) and ?Upadesha? (counsel). As the term suggests, The Hitopadesha is a collection of tales that gives good counsel. Hitopadesa was presumably written by Narayan Pandit and is an independent treatment of the Vishnu Sarman’s Panchatantra (3rd century BC) which it resembles in form. In Hitopadesha, Vishnu Sarman is depicted as a Sage who undertakes to give good counsel to the sons of Sudarsana, the king of Pataliputra, through stories within stories involving talking animals. The dating of Hitopadesha is problematic as no other work by Narayan Pandit is known. The earliest manuscript of Hitopadesha dates from 1373; it could be of East Indian origin during the Pala Empire (8th-12th centuries). This book is a condensed but faithful transcript of Hitopadesha in sense and manner rendered in English by Sir Edwin Arnold. Sir Edwin says in the Preface that the Hitopadesa may be styled ‘The father of all Fables’; for “from its numerous translations come Esop and Piplay and in latter days, ‘Reineke Fuchs’.” Summary by Jothi

The Book of Nature Myths (Version 2)

These delightful stories about how natural things began are drawn from the early folk-lore of many races. The wonderful explanations of the phenomena of nature given by the native races appeal to the child’s wonder about the same phenomena, and he and we are pleased with the imagination involved. These stories gratify our inner child’s desire for a fantastic explanation of things we see every day. – Summary by Phil Chenevert

The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts

Poems and Christian stories of the animal encounters of various saints. – Summary by Wikipedia

The Book of Stories for the Storyteller

This group project is a collection of 43 fairy tales (both old and new), folk lore, myths and real life stories by a variety of authors, brought together by writer Fanny E Coe. They are mostly short and are fun to read and tell to children and most teach valuable lessons about life. (Summary by Phil Chenevert)

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights) Volume 08

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection’s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the eighth of sixteen volumes translated by Burton.

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights) Volume 09

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection’s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the ninth of sixteen volumes translated by Burton.

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights) Volume 10

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. They are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found, but several versions date the collection?s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the tenth of sixteen volumes translated by Richard Francis Burton.

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights) Volume 11

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. They are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found, but several versions date the collection?s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the eleventh of sixteen volumes translated by Richard Francis Burton.

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights) Volume 12

This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. They are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found, but several versions date the collection?s genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the twelfth of sixteen volumes translated by Richard Francis Burton and comprises a number of new tales and variants of earlier ones.

The Book of Werewolves

A survey of the myths and legends concerning lycanthropy from ancient times to the Victorian Era. (Summary by A. Gramour)

The Counterpane Fairy

A little boy, recuperating from a lengthy illness, is entertained by visits from the Counterpane Fairy, who treats him to stories associated with each of the squares in the counterpane (quilt) on his sickbed. She has him concentrate on one of the squares until it turns into something like a doorway into the story. Once inside the story, he becomes its lead character until it fades out as if he’s awakening from a dream. (Summary by Lee)

The Counterpane Fairy (version 2)

Teddy has been ill. Now, he is feeling better and is bored; and his exhausted mother needs to rest. He is befriended by the Counterpane Fairy, who entertains him with stories of which he is the hero. (Summary by Lynne Thompson)

The Cowardly Lion of Oz

The Cowardly Lion, always fearful, has become even more afraid than usual and is convinced that he has lost the courage the Wizard of OZ gave him man years ago. To remedy this he decides to follow the dubious advice from the Scrapwork Girl, to ‘find someone who has courage and swallow him up’. Unfortunately the King of the little known country of Mudge wants him captured and added to his lion collection. Naturally new characters, all funny and fun, join in the collision of intents and purposes as only in t he magical land of OZ can they do so. Exciting, funny and fabulous this tale will enchant you with its whimsy and wit. Will our dear Cowardly Lion actually swallow someone:? Will he be captured and added to the zoo of the Mudgers? Listen and be delighted with it all works out. – Summary by philc

The Crimson Fairy Book

The Crimson Fairy Book contains thirty-six stories collected from around the world and edited by Andrew Lang. Many tales in this book are translated, or adapted, from those told by mothers and nurses in Hungary; others are familiar to Russian nurseries; the Servians are responsible for some; a rather peculiarly fanciful set of stories are adapted from the Roumanians; others are from the Baltic shores; others from sunny Sicily; a few are from Finland, and Iceland, and Japan, and Tunis, and Portugal. No doubt many children will like to look out these places on the map, and study their mountains, rivers, soil, products, and fiscal policies, in the geography books. The peoples who tell the stories differ in colour; language, religion, and almost everything else; but they all love a nursery tale. The stories have mainly been adapted or translated by Mrs. Lang, a few by Miss Lang and Miss Blackley. (Summary from the preface)

The Crocodile (Version 2)

Fyodor Dostoevesky’s “The Crocodile,” first published in 1865 in the magazine “Epoch,” is the story of Ivan Matveitch, a young man who gets swallowed by a crocodile, and survives. What will life be like for him, inside the crocodile? How will his marriage with Elena Ivanovna fare? (Summary by Phillip Cryan)

The Fables of Pilpay

These moralistic stories within stories date back to the Sanskrit text Panchatantra (200 BC ? 300 AD). They were first translated into Arabic by a Persian named Ruzbeh who named it Book of Kalilah and Dimna and then by Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa and later Joseph Harris in 1679 and then remodeled in 1818. Max Mueller noted that La Fontaine was indebted to the work and other scholars have noted that Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and John Fletcher were both familiar with the fables. The Fables of Pilpay are a series of inter-woven fables, many of which deploy metaphors of anthropomorphized animals with human virtues and vices. (Summary by The introduction and Wikipedia)

The Faerie Queene Books 6 & 7

‘The Sixth Book of the Faerie Queene contayning the Legende of S, Calidore or of Cvrtesie.’ Apart from Books 1-6, the only surviving section of the Faerie Queene is a short isolated fragment known as the Mutabilitie Cantos (traditionally numbered Book 7, cantos 6-8); this fragment is also included in the present recording. Although the Faerie Queene was never completed, it continues to be one of the most beautiful and important works of literature ever written. Spenser wrote it as a paean to the Virgin Queen Elizabeth, and to the golden age which she had brought to England. Sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh and commended by the foremost literary minds of his day, Spenser’s book remains one of the crowning poetic achievements of the Elizabethan period.(Summary by Annise)

The Fairies and the Christmas Child

The worst of being a Christmas Child is that you don?t get birthday presents, but only Christmas ones. Old Naylor, who was Father?s coachman, and had a great gruff voice that came from his boots and was rather frightening, used to ask how I expected to grow up without proper birthdays, and I thought I might have to stay little always. When I told Father this he laughed, but a moment later he grew quite grave. ?Listen, Chris,? he said. And then he took me on his knee – I was a small chap then – and told me things that made me forget old Naylor, and wish and wish that Mother could have stayed with us. The angels had wanted her, Father explained; well, we wanted her too, and there were plenty of angels in heaven, anyway. When I said this Father gave me a great squeeze and put me down, and I tried to be glad that I was a Christmas child. But I wasn?t really until a long time afterwards, when I had found the Fairy Ring, and met the Queen of the Fairies… (Summary by PG)

The Fairy Book

The sleeping beauty in the wood — Hop-O’-My-Thumb — Cinderella; or, the little glass slipper — Adventures of John Dietrich — Beauty and the Beast — Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, and Little Three Eyes — Jack the giant-killer — Tom Thumb — Rumpelstilzchen — Fortunatus — The Bremen Town Musicians — Riquet with the tuft — House Island — Snow-White and Rose-Red — Jack and the bean-stalk — Graciosa and Percinet — The iron stove — The invisible prince — The woodcutter’s daughter — Brother and sister — Little Red-Riding-Hood — Puss in Boots — The wolf and the seven young goslings — The fair one with golden looks — The butterfly — The frog-prince — The white cat — Prince Cherry — Little Snowdrop — The blue bird — The yellow dwarf — The six swans — The prince with the nose — The hind of the forest — The juniper tree — Clever Alice. All classic stories for children. (Summary by Project Gutenberg and WoollyBee)