Short description:

With introductions and biographies from Jack Zipes, and the original illustrations by Kay Nielsen, this collection of fairy tales originally published by the award-winning Romer Wilson ? Green Magic (1928), Silver Magic (1929), Red Magic (1930) ? offers a combination of classic fairy tales, alongside lesser known, global and diverse tales.

Long description:

With a Preface and biographies from Jack Zipes, as well as the original illustrations by Kay Nielsen, this collection of fairy tales originally published by the award-winning Romer Wilson ? Green Magic (1928), Silver Magic (1929), and Red Magic (1930) ? offers a combination of classic fairy tales, alongside lesser known, global and diverse tales.

Red Magic contains such classics as ?Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp? from the Arabian Nights, ?A Child?s Dream on a Star? by Dickens, and ?The Chimera? by Hawthorne. It also contains previously unpublished tales such as ?Princess Silver Silk? and ?The Enchanted Deer.? It was Romer Wilson?s intention to combine the familiar with the unknown, and to introduce authors and cultures from a variety of countries. As a researcher, Wilson uncovered a remarkable amount of stories from other countries that remain unknown today. This collection gives voice to unique and intriguing tales that inspire children to have a better understanding of how people and their stories are alike despite major differences.

Through his Preface and commentary, Jack Zipes shows how all three books are a means to bring people together in the name of peace and justice. These books will, therefore, be of interest to anyone researching or studying fairy tales, folklore and children?s literature, as well as global or comparative literature and social justice.

"Wilson?s playful paratexts and advice to readers that they must each discover the truth of a tale themselves make it evident that her priority is not presenting texts as a folklorist would but giving readers permission to engage them imaginatively on their own terms. After all, Wilson was not a scholar but a novelist?one possessing a mind that was not only erudite but also playful. Her diverse selection of fairy tales challenges and encourages readers to read the tales without the sober paratextual guidance of a conventional editor and to be dazzled by the imaginative words and worlds they encounter. In recovering Green Magic, Silver Magic, and Red Magic, Zipes gives Romer Wilson a chance to remind us that fairy tales are also about play."

--Donald Haase

Table of Contents:

CONTENTS

Preface - Jack Zipes

The Dangers of Dragons - Romer Wilson

The Reward of Virtue - Taddeo Ricciardi

The Story of the Three Bears - Robert Southey

Bluebeard - Charles Perrault

Rich Peter the Peddler - Sir George Dasent

Hawk and Mole - Edward L. Handy

A Child?s Dream of a Star - Charles Dickens

Bean Flower and Pea Blossom - Charles Nodier

The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse - Aesop

King Uggermugger, or the Princess Silver-Silk - Cholmondeley Pennell

The Bear and the Hunter?s Stepson - Charles Marius Barbeau

At the Door - Puss Brambula Compton

The Six Swans - Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm

The Enchanted Deer - Mme Catherine d?Aulnoy

Mrs. Tabitha Tortoiseshell - Puss Brambula Compton

St. George and the Dragon - Percy?s Reliques

The Dragon of Watley - Percy?s Reliques

The Chimaera - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Bash-Chalek, or True Steel - Elodie L. Mijatovich

Aladdin and the Magic Lamp - Antoine Galland