Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME
- CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE AND MAJOR WORKS OF ANDREW LANG
- A NOTE ON THE TEXT
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- 1 THE METHOD OF FOLKLORE
- 2 ANTHROPOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
- 3 FAIRY TALES
- ‘Literary Fairy Tales’, Introduction to Frederik van Eeden's Little Johannes (1895)
- ‘Perrault's Popular Tales’, Introduction to Perrault's Popular Tales (1888)
- ‘Introduction’, The Blue Fairy Book (1889)
- ‘Introduction’, The Red Fairy Book (1890)
- ‘Preface’, The Green Fairy Book (1892)
- ‘Preface’, The Yellow Fairy Book (1894)
- ‘Preface’, The Pink Fairy Book (1897)
- ‘Preface’, The Lilac Fairy Book (1910)
- 4 ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION
- 5 ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- 6 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- APPENDIX I: NAMES FREQUENTLY CITED BY LANG
- APPENDIX II: ETHINIC GROUPS CITED BY LANG
- EXPLANATORY NOTES
- Index
‘Preface’, The Pink Fairy Book (1897)
from 3 - FAIRY TALES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME
- CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE AND MAJOR WORKS OF ANDREW LANG
- A NOTE ON THE TEXT
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- 1 THE METHOD OF FOLKLORE
- 2 ANTHROPOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
- 3 FAIRY TALES
- ‘Literary Fairy Tales’, Introduction to Frederik van Eeden's Little Johannes (1895)
- ‘Perrault's Popular Tales’, Introduction to Perrault's Popular Tales (1888)
- ‘Introduction’, The Blue Fairy Book (1889)
- ‘Introduction’, The Red Fairy Book (1890)
- ‘Preface’, The Green Fairy Book (1892)
- ‘Preface’, The Yellow Fairy Book (1894)
- ‘Preface’, The Pink Fairy Book (1897)
- ‘Preface’, The Lilac Fairy Book (1910)
- 4 ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION
- 5 ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- 6 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- APPENDIX I: NAMES FREQUENTLY CITED BY LANG
- APPENDIX II: ETHINIC GROUPS CITED BY LANG
- EXPLANATORY NOTES
- Index
Summary
All people in the world tell nursery tales to their children. The Japanese tell them, the Chinese, the Red Indians by their camp fires, the Eskimo in their dark dirty winter huts. The Kaffirs of South Africa tell them, and the modern Greeks, just as the old Egyptians did, when Moses had not been many years rescued out of the bulrushes. The Germans, French, Spanish, Italians, Danes, Highlanders tell them also, and the stories are apt to be like each other everywhere. A child who has read the Blue and Red and Yellow Fairy Books will find some old friends with new faces in the Pink Fairy Book, if he examines and compares. But the Japanese tales will probably be new to the young student; the Tanuki1 is a creature whose acquaintance he may not have made before. […] Here, then, are fancies brought from all quarters: we see that black, white, and yellow peoples are fond of just the same kinds of adventures. Courage, youth, beauty, kindness, have many trials, but they always win the battle; while witches, giants, unfriendly cruel people, are on the losing hand. So it ought to be, and so, on the whole, it is and will be; and that is all the moral of fairy tales. We cannot all be young, alas! and pretty, and strong; but nothing prevents us from being kind, and no kind man, woman, or beast or bird, ever comes to anything but good in these oldest fables of the world. So far all the tales are true, and no further.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Selected Writings of Andrew LangAnthropology, Fairy Tale, Folklore, The Origins of Religion, Psychical Research, pp. 162Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2015