検索キーワード： 著者 "Andrew Lang" すべてのカテゴリー

Classic short stories featuring favourites from the animal world.

A classic collection of holiday short stories for children featuring a kidnapped Santa, busy elves and a brave tin soldier, amongst others.

A young novelist is in the process of serialising a racy novel in the Fleet Street Magazine. It tells the story of a Duchess who murders her husband by giving him cheap sherry, in the knowledge that his constitution will not stand such rough liquor. The author is surprised to find a mysterious advertisement in the personal column of The Times which addresses the author of the sherry story and exhorts him to contact a certain firm of solicitors. On making enquiries, the author is invited to a remote stately home to stay with a genuine mysterious duchess who also harbours a guilty secret.

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish poet and novelist who was also a collector of folk and fairy tales. 'The House of Strange Stories' is the tale of an evening after dinner when the various members of a house party take turns to relate a ghost story which they have experienced themselves. The stories become stranger and stranger as the evening goes on.

'East of the Sun and West of the Moon' is a fairy tale from Norway. A poor family is visited one night by a white bear who promises to make them rich if they will give him their youngest daughter. At first the girl refuses, but over several days she is persuaded to go with the bear. She is carried away on his back to a marvellous castle, where she learns that the bear turns into a prince at night.

A fascinating collection of some of the great - but less well known - fairy tales of all time.

'The Bronze Ring' is a story in which a princess falls in love with the son of the palace gardener, although her father wishes her to marry the son of his Prime Minister. The King devises a quest for the two suitors and attempts to engineer the situation so that the rich youth will win. But the gardener's son does a good deed to an old woman, who in return helps him win a magic ring which will grant wishes. But the youth's adventures are not over when he marries the princess. The ring is stolen, and he must enlist the aid of some very clever mice to get it back.

Three princes are sent on a quest by their father, to find who it is who steals the golden apples from the King's tree. The youngest son befriends a wolf who is in reality a magician. From the wolf he learns that a magical golden bird is the thief. In attempting to steal the golden bird, the prince is captured by its owner, the Emperor. The latter agrees to spare the prince's life if he can steal the golden horse from the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom. In attempting to do this the prince is again captured.

'The Donkey Skin' is a strange fairy tale of a princess who escapes an unwanted marriage by running away from the palace dressed in a donkey skin, to a hard life of poverty as a hen-wife. When a young prince happens to catch a glimpse of her without her donkey skin, he falls in love with her. But how is he to find the beautiful maiden again?

He had likewise, by another wife, a young daughter, but of unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her mother, who was the best creature in the world. No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over than the mother-in-law began to show herself in her true colors. She could not bear the good qualities of this pretty girl, and the less because they made her own daughters appear the more odious. She employed her in the meanest work of the house.

'The Enchanted Knife' is the story of a young man who seeks to marry the princess. Her father sets him an impossible task to perform before he will grant the suit - but with the aid of the cunning princess and a magic knife, the youth is able to win his bride.

'The Two Frogs' is the story of two amphibians who live in different cities in Japan. Each desires to see the world, so each sets out on a journey towards the other's home city. When they meet at the top of a mountain, the two frogs make friends and devise a plan to work out whether their journey is worthwhile - with unintended consequences.

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish poet and novelist, best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. 'The Three Dogs' tells the story of a shepherd who trades his three sheep with a stranger for three dogs with magical powers. The dogs are able to help him slay a dragon and win a princess.

A riveting collection of true stories which are so strange as to be almost unbelievable.

The Tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are of Celtic origin. It is believed that King Arthur lived in the sixth century, just after the Romans withdrew from Britain. Minstrels and storytellers travelled through the land in the centuries after this, telling tales of chivalry and heroism, and the legends of King Arthur grew up across Britain and parts of Europe. Andrew Lang's collection of Arthurian legends is one of the most complete and comprehensive ever written and is more accessible than most.

On 28 May, 1828, a boy of around 16 appeared in the Bavarian city of Nuremburg holding a letter in his hand. The lad was unable to speak, apart from three odd phrases which he repeated parrot-like, one of which was: "Want to be a soldier, as father was." The letter, addressed to the captain of the local infantry regiment, told a bizarre story. It appeared that the boy had been kept shut up in isolation in the dark for his entire life, had never learned to speak and knew nothing of the world.

Robert O'Hara Burke (1821-1861) was one of the great Victorian explorers. In 1860 he was appointed to lead the Victorian Exploring Expedition, which aimed to cross the Australian continent from south to north. The expedition left Melbourne on Monday, 20 August 1860 with a total of 19 men, 27 (rum fuelled) camels, and 23 horses. The expedition was dogged by disputes and poor leadership decisions from the start. Even at the first staging post the second in command and the medical officer resigned.

Imagine a time of fairies and giants, when good always triumphed over evil, and bravery and cunning saveed the day. That's the world inhabited by this collection of favorite fairy tales, retold in charming prose by Andrew Lang. Children will love hearing how Jack made his fortune; how a quick-thinking queen saved her baby from Rumpelstiltskin; how a clever cat turned his master into a marquis; and how even a spiteful fairy couldn't stop true love from waking a sleeping princess.

During the 19th century, brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm traveled across Germany to write down the folk tales that had been told at kitchen tables, hearths, and bedsides for centuries. In doing so, they preserved a rich heritage of storytelling that connects us to the past. These favorite Grimm fairy tales showcase the evils of greed and jealousy and the redeeming power of love.

This condensed version of the King Arthur narrative was compiled by folklorist Andrew Lang from traditional sources and features all the familiar iconography: the sword in the stone, Excalibur, the Round Table, Camelot, Merlin, knights and chivalry, and the quest for the Holy Grail.