The Crimson Fairy Book

Thirty-six tales from Hungarian, Russian, Icelandic, Japanese and Tunisian sources: the little grey man, the sea king's daughter, the fox and the lapp. Andrew Lang's coloured fairy books ran to twelve volumes over twenty years and were the making of the fairy tale as a children's book in English. This one leans east, and the Hungarian stories are the strangest in the series. Thirteen plates by painters including Burne-Jones and Collier carry the book's old European wonder, from forest fairies and apple gatherers to Brynhild and the Wawel dragon.