|
Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
Fairy Tales |
|---|
|
Book type:
Sort by:
View by:
|
By: Fanny Coe [editor] (1866-1956) | |
|---|---|
The Book of Stories for the Storyteller
This is a delightful 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 listen to by children and adults and most teach valuable lessons about life. Some of the stories are: A Legend of the North Wind; How the Robin's Breast became Red; The Little Rabbits; St Christopher; The Necklace of Truth; A Night with Santa Claus; The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe; Pocahontas and How Molly spent her Sixpence | |
By: Unknown (b. 1883) | |
|---|---|
The Key of Gold: 23 Czech Folk Tales
Not your common fairy tales, this collection is a mixture of morals, quirkiness, and sarcasm. In it one finds ironic derivatives (if not roots) of well known fairy tales such as “The Brave Little Taylor” and “Beauty and the Beast,” as well as some more unusual settings to impart the popular fairy tale themes of justice and happily ever after. Most stories are told with wry humor and often shocking irreverence for the expected fairy tale turn out. This is NOT a book for children, but one for adults who love fairy tales, and enjoy making fun of them... | |
By: Various | |
|---|---|
Kayray's Storytime
A collection of my favorite short children's stories and rhymes. | |
By: Unknown | |
|---|---|
The Fairy Ring
The Fairy Ring, originally published in 1910, is a collection of 63 fairy tales from around the globe. It includes such well-known favorites as “History of Jack the Giant-Killer,” “The Frog Prince,”"Rumpel-stilts-ken,” and “Snow-white and Rose-red,” among many others. Children of all ages will enjoy these stories. | |
The House that Jack Built
“The House that Jack Built” is a standard of juvenile literature that delights children and adults alike with the increasingly lengthy sentences, stretched to the breaking point, that make up its narrative. Through a chain of events, beginning with a rodent eating some grain and culminating in a festive wedding, children learn that playing with grammar can be fun! You can read along with this recording. | |
By: Various | |
|---|---|
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 | |
Cocoa Break Collection
Following in the vein of my Coffee-Break collections, this is a collection of short (all under 15 minutes) stories for kids. Focus is on fables and fairy tales published before 1923. | |
By: Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846-1916) | |
|---|---|
Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know
This is a collection of well known fairy tales by various authors, including the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and many others. | |
By: Frank R. Stockton (1834-1902) | |
|---|---|
The Bee-Man of Orn and Other Fanciful Tales
A collection of nine enchanting short stories filled with curious beasts and unexpected endings. Included are The Bee-Man of Orn; The Griffin and the Minor Canon; Old Pipes and the Dryad; The Queen's Museum; Christmas Before Last: Or, The Fruit of the Fragile Palm; Prince Hassak's March; The Battle of the Third Cousins; The Banished King; and The Philopena | |
By: Joseph Jacobs | |
|---|---|
Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales
Celtic Fairy Tales is a collection of 25 folk and fairy stories collected from Ireland and Scotland. At what I imagine is the Frontispiece, or the dedication page, is the phrase: “SAY THIS Three times, with your eyes shut ‘Mothuighim boladh an Éireannaigh bhinn bhreugaigh faoi m’fhóidín dúthaigh.’And you will see/What you will see_” A loose translation of this Gaelic phrase is “I sense the smell of a sweet, enchanting Irishman around my dear homeplace.” | |
By: Howard Pyle (1853-1911) | |
|---|---|
Twilight Land
The room was all full of twilight; but there they sat, every one of them. I did not count them, but there were ever so many: Aladdin, and Ali Baba, and Fortunatis, and Jack-the-Giant-Killer, and Doctor Faustus, and Bidpai, and Cinderella, and Patient Grizzle, and the Soldier who cheated the Devil, and St. George, and Hans in Luck, who traded and traded his lump of gold until he had only an empty churn to show for it; and there was Sindbad the Sailor, and the Tailor who killed seven flies at a blow,... | |
By: William Shakespeare (1564-1616) | |
|---|---|
Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis is Shakespeare's narrative poem about the love of the goddess Venus for the mortal youth Adonis, dedicated partly to his patron, the Earl of Southampton (thought by some to be the beautiful youth to which many of the Sonnets are addressed). The poem recounts Venus' attempts to woo Adonis, their passionate coupling, and Adonis' rejection of the goddess, to which she responds with jealousy, with tragic results. This recording features three different readers performing the narration, Venus, and Adonis. | |
By: Caroline Snowden Guild | |
|---|---|
Violet: A Fairy Story
A charming fairytale -- with realistic touches -- from the mid-19th Century. | |
By: John Cargill Brough (1834-1872) | |
|---|---|
The Fairy Tales of Science
This book, written in the mid 19th century and illustrated by Charles H. Bennett, provides an entertaining introduction to topics in science for children. In each chapter, the author uses a popular myth or fairy tale to lay the groundwork for an equally fascinating "fairy tale of science" full of interesting facts and real life examples. | |
By: Eden Phillpotts (1862-1960) | |
|---|---|
The Flint Heart
The flint heart is a stone of heart shape, forged in prehistoric times, that changes whoever owns it into a wicked person. The story of the flint heart's ultimate defeat involves multiple trips into fairyland by Charles and Unity, children of one of the heart's victims. Along the way the reader meets lots of fun characters such as the king of fairyland, a talking (and wounded) hot water bottle, and the mysterious Zagabog. Occasional references to British words and concepts may require some explanation for American readers, but the story is perfectly understandable without such explications. The droll narration makes the story as much fun for adults as for children. | |
By: Lilian Gask (1865-????) | |
|---|---|
The Fairies and the Christmas Child
The worst of being a Christmas Child[2] 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... | |
By: Katharine Pyle (1863-1938) | |
|---|---|
Tales of Folk and Fairies
In "Tales of Folk and Fairies" Ms. Pyle tells 15 different children's stories from around the world; each more delightful than the last. Each story stands completely on it's own and although they were probably meant for children, adults will certainly enjoy them as well. | |
By: Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) | |
|---|---|
Racketty-Packetty House and other stories
This is a collection of short stories and fairy tales by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the author of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess. | |
By: Jean Ingelow (1820-1897) | |
|---|---|
Mopsa the Fairy
Jean Ingelow (1820 – 1897) was one of the more famous poets of the period, indeed many people suggested that she should succeed Alfred, Lord Tennyson as the first female Poet Laureate when he died in 1892. Mopsa the Fairy, written in 1869 is one of her more enduring stories. It is a delightful fantasy about a young boy who discovers a nest of young fairies and tells of their adventures together. | |
By: Olive Beaupre Miller [editor] (1883-1968) | |
|---|---|
In the Nursery of My Bookhouse
Full of delightful nursery rhymes, charming poems and engaging stories, folk and fairy tales, this is the first volume of the "My Bookhouse" series for little ones. Originally published in the 1920's as a six volume set, these books, edited by Olive Beaupre Miller, contained the best in children's literature, stories, poems and nursery rhymes. They progressed in difficulty through the different volumes - this first being intended for the youngest audience. | |
By: Walter De la Mare (1873-1956) | |
|---|---|
The Three Mulla-mulgars
Three monkey brothers, Thumb, Thimble, and Nod, are Mulla-mulgars or royal monkeys. As she dies, their mother gives them the enchanted Wonderstone for protection, and tells them to follow their father. They embark on a journey of fantastical adventure to find their father, who left years earlier in search of the kingdom of his brother, the Prince of the Valleys of Tishnar, promising to return for them after he had found the way. | |
By: Unknown | |
|---|---|
National Nursery Book
"The Publishers offer in this little volume of well known and long loved stories to their young readers. The tales which have delighted the children of many generations will, they feel assured, be equally welcome in the nurseries of the present day, which, with the popularity and antiquity of the contents of the volume, justify them in styling it The National Nursery Book." Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears, Mother Hubbard, Cinderella and many other well known stories, poems, nursery rhymes and songs are included in this little book. Note that the Punch and Judy story does include a lot of gratuitous violence but then that is what Punch and Judy seem to be all about, eh? | |
By: Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846-1916) | |
|---|---|
Famous Stories Every Child Should Know
The group of stories brought together in this volume differ from legends because they have, with one exception,no core fact at the centre, from myths because they make no attempt to personify or explain the forces or processes of nature, from fairy stories because they do not often bring to the stage actors from a different nature from ours.... The stories which make up this volume are closer to experience and come, from the most part, nearer to the every-day happenings of life. | |
By: Plato (Πλάτων) (c. 428 BC - c. 347 BC) | |
|---|---|
Critias
This is an incomplete dialogue from the late period of Plato's life. Plato most likely created it after Republic and it contains the famous story of Atlantis, that Plato tells with such skill that many have believed the story to be true. Critias, a friend of Socrates, and uncle of Plato was infamous as one of the bloody thirty tyrants. | |
By: Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) | |
|---|---|
Criminal from Lost Honour
"In the whole history of man there is no chapter more instructive for the heart and mind than the annals of his errors. On the occasion of every great crime a proportionally great force was in motion. If by the pale light of ordinary emotions the play of the desiring faculty is concealed, in the situation of strong passion it becomes the more striking, the more colossal, the more audible, and the acute investigator of humanity, who knows how much may be properly set down to the account of the mechanism... | |
By: Anonymous | |
|---|---|
Jokes For All Occasions
JOKES FOR ALL OCCASIONSPREFACEThe ways of telling a story are as many as the tellers themselves. It is impossible to lay down precise rules by which any one may perfect himself in the art, but it is possible to offer suggestions by which to guide practise in narration toward a gratifying success. Broadly distinguished, there are two methods of telling a story. One uses the extreme of brevity, and makes its chief reliance on the point. The other devotes itself in great part to preliminary elaboration in the narrative, making this as amusing as possible, so that the point itself serves to cap a climax... | |
By: Clement | |
|---|---|
Women in the fine arts
WOMEN IN THE FINE ARTS FROM THE SEVENTH CENTURY B. C.TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY A. D.BY CLARA ERSKINE CLEMENT PREFATORY NOTE As a means of collecting material for this book I have sent to many artists in Great Britain and in various countries of Europe, as well as in the United States, a circular, asking where their studies were made, what honors they have received, the titles of their principal works, etc. I take this opportunity to thank those who have cordially replied to my questions, many of whom... | |
By: Sir James Knowles | |
|---|---|
The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights
MANUAL OF SURGERY, OXFORD MEDICAL PUBLICATIONSBY ALEXIS THOMSON, F.R.C.S.Ed.PREFACE TO SIXTH EDITION Much has happened since this Manual was last revised, and many surgical lessons have been learned in the hard school of war. Some may yet have to be unlearned, and others have but little bearing on the problems presented to the civilian surgeon. Save in its broadest principles, the surgery of warfare is a thing apart from the general surgery of civil life, and the exhaustive literature now available on every aspect of it makes it unnecessary that it should receive detailed consideration in a manual for students... | |
By: Sergey Nikolov | |
|---|---|
Princess Rose and the Golden Bird
MANUAL OF SURGERY, OXFORD MEDICAL PUBLICATIONSBY ALEXIS THOMSON, F.R.C.S.Ed.PREFACE TO SIXTH EDITION Much has happened since this Manual was last revised, and many surgical lessons have been learned in the hard school of war. Some may yet have to be unlearned, and others have but little bearing on the problems presented to the civilian surgeon. Save in its broadest principles, the surgery of warfare is a thing apart from the general surgery of civil life, and the exhaustive literature now available on every aspect of it makes it unnecessary that it should receive detailed consideration in a manual for students... | |
By: Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) | |
|---|---|
Snow Queen and Other Stories
This project features four longer stories by Hans Christian Andersen.Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films. ( | |
By: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) | |
|---|---|
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded continues the adventures of the many characters in the previous volume Sylvie and Bruno. The fairy-children Sylvie and Bruno are charming whenever they appear, their fairy companions such as the Professor delight in taking ideas to their logical (and humorous) conclusions, and many nonsense songs are sung. Meanwhile, the mortals (comprised of the unnamed narrator, the gracious Lady Muriel and the sententious Arthur) tend to become the vehicles for Carroll's regular sermons on morality and proper Christian values. | |
By: Howard Pyle (1853-1911) | |
|---|---|
Wonder Clock
"Four and twenty marvellous tales, one for each hour of the day," retold in a novel and entertaining manner by a master of the form. While drawing on German, English, and Scandinavian folk literature for many of his characters and plots, Pyle reworks the material in an imaginative way, crafting the tales in his own inimitable style. Equally engaging are the numerous woodcuts that accompany the stories and enliven the narrative. Read along and see the illustrations | |
By: Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903) | |
|---|---|
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. | |
By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) | |
|---|---|
Faust II
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts. It is Goethe's most famous work and considered by many to be one of the greatest works of German literature. Rich in classical allusion, in Part Two the romantic story of the first Faust is forgotten, and Faust wakes in a field of fairies to initiate a new cycle of adventures and purpose... | |
By: Anonymous | |
|---|---|
Nibelungenlied
The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge. The Nibelungenlied is based on pre-Christian Germanic heroic motifs (the "Nibelungensaga"), which include oral traditions and reports based on historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries. Old Norse parallels of the legend survive in the Völsunga saga, the Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda, the Legend of Norna-Gest, and the Þiðrekssaga... | |
By: P. H. Emerson (1856-1936) | |
|---|---|
Welsh Fairy Tales and Other Stories
A collection of Welsh Fairy tales. These tales were collected by me whilst living in Anglesea during the winter 1891-2. With the exception of the French story, they were told me and I took them down at the time. In most cases I have done but little "editing", preferring to give the stories as told. P. H. Emerson, April 1894. | |
By: Publius (Ovid) Ovidius Naso (c. 43 BC - 18 AD) | |
|---|---|
Fasti
The Fasti is a Latin poem in six books, written by Ovid and believed to have been published in 8 AD. The Fasti is organized according to the Roman calendar and explains the origins of Roman holidays and associated customs, often through the mouths of deities and with multiple aetiologies. The poem was left unfinished when the poet was exiled to Tomis, so only the first six months of the year appear in the poem. | |
By: John Rae (1882-1963) | |
|---|---|
New Adventures of Alice
After reading and re-reading the book many time as a boy and wishing that Lewis Carroll would have written another Alice In Wonderland Book, John Rae began imagining what that girl would have gotten up to if he had done so. Telling these stories to his children over the years, where they were enthusiastically received, he finally decided to share them with the world. And here they are! The New Adventures of Alice | |
By: Alfred John Church (1829-1912) | |
|---|---|
Stories from Virgil
Alfred J. Church created 26 stories from the original Greek version of Virgil's Aeneid. He included well-known ones, such as "The Horse of Wood" and "The Love and Death of Dido," as well as many others perhaps less well-known, such as "King Evander" and "The Funeral Games of Anchises." | |
By: Katharine Berry Judson (1866-1929) | |
|---|---|
Myths and Legends of Alaska
Editor Katharine Berry Judson collates and presents a narrative history of Alaskan Myths. Originally gathered and recorded by government ethnologists, she paints an overall picture of Alaskan history as told by its many tribes. From the Eskimo to the Tlingit, from the Tsetsaut to the Haida, the origin of the still-wild state begins with the great Bird (often called "Raven") and branches out, through its legends, in wonderful and amazing directions. | |
By: Various | |
|---|---|
Through Fairy Halls of My Bookhouse
Full of delightful fairy tales, charming poems and engaging stories, this is the third volume of the "My Bookhouse" series for little ones. Originally published in the 1920's as a six volume set, these books, edited by Olive Beaupre Miller, contained the best in children's literature, stories, poems and nursery rhymes. They progressed in difficulty through the different volumes. | |
Treasure Chest of My Bookhouse
Full of delightful fairy tales, charming poems and engaging stories, this is the fourth volume of the "My Bookhouse" series for little ones. Originally published in the 1920's as a six volume set, these books, edited by Olive Beaupre Miller, contained the best in children's literature, stories, poems and nursery rhymes. They progressed in difficulty through the different volumes. | |
By: Richard le Gallienne (1866-1947) | |
|---|---|
Maker of Rainbows
A collection of Fairy Tales from Richard Le Gallienne. | |
By: Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) | |
|---|---|
EDWY: A Poem, in Three Parts
In Edwy, Ann Radcliffe gives us a delightful piece of poetic moonshine, whose eponymous hero seeks assistance from the world of faerie in order to spy on his girlfriend, Aura, and see if she really loves him. He does this by venturing unseen into Windsor Forest at night to trap the love-fay, Eda, who, once spellbound, must reveal all and let him remotely view Aura's activities by means of a magic mirror cut from crystal. In addition to this early form of cyberstalking, Edwy, on his night-journey into the forest gets to witness a royal procession of the Fairie Queen, followed by midnight revels of elves and spirits... | |
By: Joseph Comyns Carr (1849-1916) | |
|---|---|
King Arthur
A retelling of the classic legend of King Arthur, Guinevere & Sir Lancelot. | |
By: James W. Schultz (1859-1947) | |
|---|---|
Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park
James Willard Schultz, or Apikuni, (1859 – 1947) was a noted author, explorer, Glacier National Park guide, fur trader and historian of the Blackfoot Indians. Schultz is most noted for his prolific stories about Blackfoot life and his contributions to the naming of prominent features in Glacier National Park. | |
By: Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) | |
|---|---|
Grotesques and Fantasies
A set of often funny, sometimes tragic stories by Israel Zangwill. Most famous for his scathingly accurate portrayals of the Jewish ghetto, these stories have a wider stage, poking fun at social conventions and society itself, both high and low. The real and the fantastic collide to produce a world uniquely Zangwill's.These are the tales of figures as diverse as a pantomime dragon, an excellent butler, a man living his life in the wrong order and a Jewish maiden who knows exactly what she is worth... | |
By: Richard le Gallienne (1866-1947) | |
|---|---|
Worshipper of the Image
"The Worshipper of the Image," by Richard Le Galliene first published in 1900. The protagonist Antony, a poet buys a death mask in an antique shop and soon realizes it resembles his wife Beatrice. The death mask, Antony names "Silencieux," becomes an all consuming fetish and drives Antony from his once beloved family. Silencieux also drives Antony quite insane as he is willing to give his soul to be with her. | |
By: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) | |
|---|---|
Celtic Twilight
I have desired, like every artist, to create a little world out of the beautiful, pleasant, and significant things of this marred and clumsy world, and to show in a vision something of the face of Ireland to any of my own people who would look where I bid them. I have therefore written down accurately and candidly much that I have heard and seen, and, except by way of commentary, nothing that I have merely imagined.Many of the tales in this book were told me by one Paddy Flynn, a little bright-eyed old man, who lived in a leaky and one-roomed cabin in the village of Ballisodare... | |
By: Emilie Kip Baker (1873-1951) | |
|---|---|
Stories of Old Greece and Rome
The Stories of Old Greece and Rome is an easy to read summary of all of the famous and not so famous Greek and Roman mythological stories. All of the famous Heroes are here: Theseus, Jason, Hercules, and all of the well known Deities. These stories tell the real detail of the myths, not the ones that have become sanitized (and dare I say it, 'Disneyfied') over the centuries. These are not stories for children, as the old gods and heroes were vengeful and some might say sadistic in their treatment of minor slights and misdemeanors... | |
By: Katharine Berry Judson (1866-1929) | |
|---|---|
Myths And Legends Of British North America
[The Native American] story tellers of the camp related, with dramatic gestures, stories of the Days of the Grandfathers, in the beginning of the Newness of Things. Nothing was too large or too small to come within the bounds of their beliefs, or within the play of their fancy. Only authentic myths and legends have been used in the compilation of this volume. The leading authorities are the publications of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, of the Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, as well as the ethnological publications of the Canadian Bureau of Mines... | |
By: Bram Stoker (1847-1912) | |
|---|---|
Under the Sunset
“Under the Sunset” is a collection of eight amazing fantasy tales from the mind and imagination of the legendary Bram Stoker (Dracula.) Originally conceived of by the author to be a collection of “Children’s stories,” these tales lean towards the dark and moody and even sometimes scary. Several of the tales contained in this collection are considered to be examples of the finest stories ever written by Stoker. (Erik) | |
By: Eva Katherine Gibson (1857-1916) | |
|---|---|
Zauberlinda, the Wise Witch
Annie Elfrida McLane lives in a little brown house of the South Dakota prairie, within sight of the Black Hills. Her father is a widower and prospects for gold there; Annie lives at home with her grandmother and the servants, Marthy Stubbs and Pete Pumpernickle. Annie has no neighbours, no other children to play with, and no school to attend; she is sometimes lonely and despondent. She is dependent for company on her black cat Silvertip, the farm animals around her, and creatures of the surrounding fields and meadows that she sometimes makes her pets... | |
By: Various | |
|---|---|
Cocoa Break Collection, Vol. 02
This is a collection of international fairy tales clocking in at 5-15 minutes apiece, suitable for childrens' winter cocoa breaks, or other times when quality entertainment is needed. | |
By: Ivan Krylov (1769-1844) | |
|---|---|
Kriloff's Fables
Herein is a collection of 86 fables translated into English from the 201 written by Kriloff. Some of Kriloff's fables are translations from La Fontaine, but most are original. In some, the foibles of the Russian nobility can be seen. | |
By: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) | |
|---|---|
Devil's Bridge
Taken from Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes, Switzerland and Austria: Vol. XVI, edited by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. | |
By: Peter Nikolaevich Polevoi (1839-1902) | |
|---|---|
Russian Fairy Tales
The existence of the Russian Skazki or Märchen was first made generally known to the British public by Mr W. R. S. Ralston in his “Russian Folk-Tales.” That excellent and most engrossing volume was, primarily, a treatise on Slavonic folk-lore, illustrated with admirable skill and judgment by stories, mainly selected from the vast collection of Afanasiev, who did for the Russian what Asbjörnsen has done for the Norwegian folk-tale. A year after the appearance of Mr Ralston's book, the eminent... | |
By: Alicia Stuart Aspinwall (1887-?) | |
|---|---|
Short Stories for Short People
This is a collection of short stories by Alicia Aspinwall. | |
By: Geoffrey of Monmouth (1100-1155) | |
|---|---|
History of the Kings of Britain
More medieval romance than history, Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae represents the oldest versions we have of many legends of Britain, populated by such characters as the Leir, Cymbeline, Uther and Arthur Pendragon and Cadwallader. This is Giles' 1848 revision of Thompson's 1718 edition. - Summary by SkyRider | |
By: Songling Pu (1640-1715) | |
|---|---|
Strange Stories From a Chinese Studio, volume 1
"Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" is a collection of nearly five hundred mostly supernatural tales written by Pu Songling during the early Qing Dynasty. It was written in Classical Chinese rather than Vernacular Chinese. Pu is believed to have completed the majority of the tales sometime in 1679, though he could have added entries as late as 1707. He borrows from a folk tradition of oral storytelling to put to paper a series of captivating, colorful stories, where the boundary between reality and the odd or fantastic is blurred... | |
By: Richard Wilson (1887-1976) | |
|---|---|
Indian Story Book
Richard Wilson has taken tales from the two great Indian epics, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, as well as other early sources, and has retold them in English, in an effort to showcase to young English-speaking readers that 'oriental' stories share the same elements as tales they are used to. Love, hate, virtue, oppression, tenderness, bravery and resourcefulness and an ultimate desire to conquer evil. - Summary by Paraphrased from the Introduction | |
By: Yei Theodora Ozaki (1871-1932) | |
|---|---|
Romances of Old Japan
A collection of romances from old Japan rendered into English by Yei Theodora Ozaki. Filled with tales of honor, adventure, tragedy, and romance, this collection will surely give anyone interested in Japanese culture and literature an insightful and enjoyable experience. | |
By: Snorri Sturleson (1178-1241) | |
|---|---|
Prose Edda (Brodeur Translation)
Also known as the Younger Edda or Snorri's Edda, the Prose Edda is a three-part work composed or at least compiled by thirteenth-century Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson. Along with the Elder or Poetic Edda written by an unknown poet a half-century earlier, the Prose Edda is a major source of much older Norse mythology as it had evolved through the generations. The two Eddas have had a profound effect on European literature in both style and content, not least on J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth fantasies... | |
By: Laurence Housman (1865-1959) | |
|---|---|
Stories from the Arabian Nights
Scheherazadè, the heroine of the Thousand and one Nights, ranks among the great story-tellers of the world but the great quantity of her stories were meant to stave off her death and so we can expect a few to be not of the best quality. The six stories chosen here to be retold by Laurence Housman however, are some of the very best to be had among all of them. They are beautifully written and deserve to be 'told' by readers who enjoy telling stories. - Summary by Phil Chenevert | |
By: Abby Langdon Alger (1850-1917) | |
|---|---|
In Indian Tents
A collection of the legends and stories of North Eastern Indians "In the summer of 1882 and 1883, I was associated with Charles G. Leland in the collection of the material for his book The Algonquin Legends of New England, published in 1884. I found the work so delightful, that I have gone on with it since, whenever I found myself in the neighborhood of Indians. The supply of legends and tales seems to be endless, one supplementing and complementing another, so that there may be a dozen versions of one tale, each containing something new... | |
By: Marie of Romania Alexandra Victoria (1875-1938) | |
|---|---|
Dreamer of Dreams
Eric, artist for the king, has created a marvelous painting of a royal wedding. It is finished except for the face of the queen, which appeared to him in a dream. When he awoke, he had forgotten the form of the features. Obsessed with recapturing this vision, he goes on a quest to find the woman because he cannot paint another stroke until he sees those eyes again. During his journey, he discovers much more, perhaps even the true meaning of his dream and of his life. - Summary by Amy Gramour | |
By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) | |
|---|---|
Crocodile
Ivan Matveich, the most ordinary person you might hope to meet, is swallowed alive by a crocodile at a sideshow. Finding life inside the belly of the beast quite comfortable, he makes a home for himself there. His disquisitions on the state of the world from inside the crocodile make him quite a name for himself; while all the while the discussion rages outside as to whether the beast is going to be cut open to release him or not, its value as a sideshow attraction having massively increased owing to the presence of the human voice buried inside it. One of Jorge Luis Borges' seven most favourite stories. - Summary by Tony Addison | |
By: Songling Pu (1640-1715) | |
|---|---|
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Volume 2
"Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" or "Strange Tales of Liaozhai" is a collection of nearly five hundred mostly supernatural tales written by Pu Songling during the early Qing Dynasty. It was written in Classical Chinese rather than Vernacular Chinese. Pu is believed to have completed the majority of the tales sometime in 1679, though he could have added entries as late as 1707. He borrows from a folk tradition of oral storytelling to put to paper a series of captivating, colorful stories, where the boundary between reality and the odd or fantastic is blurred... | |
By: Snorri Sturleson (1178-1241) | |
|---|---|
Heimskringla: The Stories of the Kings of Norway, Called The Round World
Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230. The name Heimskringla was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts . Heimskringla is a collection of sagas about the Norwegian kings, beginning with the saga of the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, followed by accounts of historical Norwegian rulers from Harald Fairhair of the 9th century up to the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla in 1177... | |
By: Howard Pyle (1853-1911) | |
|---|---|
Story of King Arthur and His Knights
Masterful artist, illustrator, and storyteller Howard Pyle brings new life to the legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. The first in Pyle's series of four books about King Arthur, this volume takes readers to the very beginning and the miracle of Arthur pulling the sword from the anvil and claiming his birthright as King of Britain. We are reintroduced to Pyle's Lady Guinevere, the Enchanter Merlin, the evil Morgana Le Fay, the chivalrous knights Sir Pellias and Sir Gawaine and follow their noble adventures. A book to be enjoyed by children and adults, alike. - Summary by Jill Engle | |
By: Margaret P. Sherwood (1864-1955) | |
|---|---|
Princess Pourquoi
Once upon a time, a princess was born, and a fairy cursed her with a mind: "She is a woman-child, and yet she shall think. She shall be alien to her own sex, and undesired by the other. She shall ask and it will not be given her. She shall achieve and it shall count her for naught. Men shall point the finger at her like this...and shall whisper, 'There goes the woman with brains, poor thing!" This and four other joyful feminist fairy tales make up The Princess Pourquoi. - Summary by wildemoose | |
By: Catherine Crowe (1803-1876) | |
|---|---|
Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers
The stories in Volume 1 centre on dreams, psychic presentiments, traces, wraiths, doppelgängers, apparitions, and imaginings of the after-life. Crowe's vivid tales, written with great energy and imagination, are classic examples of nineteenth-century spiritualist writing and strongly influenced other authors as well as providing inspiration for later adherents of ghost-seeing and psychic culture. - Summary by Cambridge University Press | |
By: William Thomas Linskill (1855-1929) | |
|---|---|
St Andrews Ghost Stories
Seventeen ghost stories centered around the ruined medieval cathedral of Saint Andrew in the Scots city of that name. The author was famous in his time for his interest in ghostly apparitions. | |
By: Edwin Carlile Litsey (1874-1970) | |
|---|---|
Race Of The Swift
This 1905 collection is of the author’s short animal stories, some previously published in magazines. - Summary by David Wales | |
By: David Kalakaua (1836-1891) | |
|---|---|
Legends and Myths of Hawaii
A collection of legends and myths of the Hawaiian islands and their 'strange people' as told by His Majesty King Kalakaua, the last king of Hawaii. Introduction, including a history, geography and social and religious commentary on the islands by R.M. Daggett, United States Minister to the Hawaiian Islands 1882-1885. | |
By: Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
|---|---|
Wisdom of the Ancients, A Series of Mythological Fables
"Now I suppose most people will think I am but entertaining myself with a toy, and using much the same kind of licence in expounding the poets’ fables which the poets themselves did in inventing them; and it is true that if I had a mind to vary and relieve my severer studies with some such exercise of pleasure for my own or my reader’s recreation, I might very fairly indulge in it. But that is not my meaning. Not but that I know very well what pliant stuff fable is made of, how freely it will follow any way you please to draw it, and how easily with a little dexterity and discourse of wit meanings which it was never meant to bear may be plausibly put upon it... | |
By: Wilhelm Hauff (1802-1827) | |
|---|---|
Swanhilde, and other Fairy Tales
Wilhelm Hauff was a German poet and novelist, perhaps best known for his fairy tales . Some of his stories, such as the Caliph Stork found in this volume, are popular in German-speaking countries to this day. In this book of fairy tales, we find the tale of the beautiful Swanhilde and various other stand-alone fairy tales, as well as a frame story "The Caravan" which includes multiple fairy tales within it. Hauff's freshness and originality shine through in these tales. | |
By: James Stephens (1882-1950) | |
|---|---|
Irish Fairy Tales
Collection of Irish Fairy Tales set in a wooded, Medieval Ireland filled with larger-than-life hunters, warriors, kings, and fairies - Summary by Anthony K. Futterer | |
By: Sanni Metelerkamp (1867-1945) | |
|---|---|
Outa Karel’s Stories: South African Folk-Lore Tales
Sanni Metelerkamp was a South African playwright and author born in 1867. She is well known for her biography of her great-grandfather, George Rex, the British born entrepreneur who founded the town of Knysna and was rumoured to have been an illegitimate son of King George III. Possibly her greatest legacy however is the publication of a collection of folk tales which in her own words "… are the common property of every country child in South Africa." By the time she published "Outa Karel’s Stories: South African Folk-Lore Tales" in 1914, South Africa had come through a time of great turmoil... | |
By: William Patten (1868-1936) | |
|---|---|
Junior Classics Volume 4: Heroes and Heroines of Chivalry
The purpose of The Junior Classics is to provide, in ten volumes containing about five thousand pages, a classified collection of tales, stories, and poems, both ancient and modern, suitable for boys and girls of from six to sixteen years of age, but adults will enjoy these just the same! This volume contains stories about heroes such as Robin Hood, King Arthur, and Don Quixote. Summary by Foon | |
By: Cenydd Morus (1879-1937) | |
|---|---|
Fates of the Princes of Dyfed
Cenydd Morus's imaginative retelling of tales from the Mabinogion, the great work of Welsh literature first recorded in the 12th-13th century. Written while he was working for the Theosophical Society in California, Morris's version restores the Gods that he believed had disappeared from the written record but must have been present in the oral tradition of the Druid bards. First published in 1914 and republished in the 1970s as the 15th volume in the celebrated Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library. - Summary by Phil Benson | |
By: Mark Twain (1835-1910) | |
|---|---|
Mysterious Stranger
Mark Twain wrote this fairytale style story about 3 boys who meet Satan's cousin and they experience many things during this time. The story is narrated by one of the boys many years later. Mark Twain ends the story expressing the idea that will blow you away. Ideas that can be traced back thousands of years in many religions. What is existence really ... to quote that well known song by Eliphalet Oram Lyte ... Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream .... so dream on. - Summary by Patrick79 | |
By: Richard Gordon Smith (1858-1918) | |
|---|---|
Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan
Tales of Folklore are often of special interest. Anything may happen to ordinary mortals in the world painted by folklore. But it becomes even more interesting when you dive into folklore of places away from your own culture. This volume is a collection of ancient Japanese tales. We hear of ordinary mortals interacting with the spirit world, sometimes to their benefit, sometimes to their doom, we hear of love and hate, and of war and peace. Some of the stories will be entirely new to most readers, some of them will be uncannily familiar. - Summary by Carolin | |
By: A. G. Seklemian | |
|---|---|
Golden Maiden and Other Folk Tales and Fairy Stories Told in Armenia
Armenians trace their history back to before the time of the Babylonians and earliest recorded history - in fact, to Togarmah, a grandson of Japhet, Noah's son, who settled in Armenia after the Ark came to rest on mount Ararat. Armenia was also the first State in the world to adopt Christianity as their official religion, around the 3rd Century AD. This book contains many wonderful folk and fairy tales culled from this long history of the Armenian country people, to whom all nature is full of stories, by the scholar and storyteller Mr. A. G. Seklemian. - Summary by Noel Badrian | |
By: William Elliot Griffis (1843-1928) | |
|---|---|
Korean Fairy Tales
Everywhere on earth the fairy world of each country is older and perhaps more enduring than the one we see and feel and tread upon. So I tell in this book the folk lore of the Korean people, and of the behavior of the particular kind of fairies that inhabit the Land of Morning Splendor. | |
By: Anonymous | |
|---|---|
Heroic Life and Exploits of Siegfried the Dragon Slayer
This is the prequel of the Nibelungenlied. It tells the tale of Siegfried as a young man when he sets forth to earn a name for himself so he will be able to stand proudly with his ancestors. - Summary by Fritz | |
By: John Luther Long (1861-1927) | |
|---|---|
Little Miss Joy-Sing
A pleasant kind of fantasy set in Japan concerning a woman and a prince. - Summary by KevinS | |
By: Lucian of Samosata | |
|---|---|
Lucian's Dialogues Volume 2: The Dialogues of the Sea-Gods
The Dialogues of the Sea-Gods are 15 miniature dialogues mocking the Homeric conception of the Greek gods, originally written in Attic Greek by Syrian author Lucian of Samosata. Almost 1900 years old, these dialogues still retain a lot of their original humor and wit. - Summary by Foon Cast: Alpheius/Menelaus: ZoinkMeister Patrick Amphitrite/Panope: alanmapstone Cyclops: Nemo Delphines/Amymone: Leanne Yau Doris: Foon Enipeus: Rob Marland Galateia: Anita Sloma-Martinez Galene/Xanthus: Jeanne Viray Iphianassa: Pseudonymous Nerd Iris: Availle Notus: Stefan Von Blon Poseidon: Larry Wilson Protheus/Triton: Adam Bielka Thalassa: B L Newman Thetis: K... | |
By: Edith Ogden Harrison (1862-1955) | |
|---|---|
Prince Silverwings and Other Fairy Tales
Edith Ogden Harrison's first published work, Prince Silverwings, is a collection of seven fairy tales for young readers. It is perhaps best known as the source of an unsuccessful stage collaboration with L. Frank Baum, ultimately providing inspiration for several of Baum's Oz books. | |
By: Various | |
|---|---|
Myths and Legends Around the World - Collection 01
This collection is dedicated to recordings of short mythical or legendary works which are in the Public Domain. Appropriate stories tell of legends, heroes, myths, and ancient lore. - Summary by Lynette Caulkins | |
By: Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) | |
|---|---|
Tales from Ariosto
The object of the present venture is to do something to revive the interest of the ordinary English reader in Ariosto. The present volume is intended to give some of the chief stories of the "Orlando Furioso" in such a way as to bring out also the main plot. The "Orlando Furioso" is a conglomeration of stories of all kinds, from the most delicate and ideal romance to the broadest humor. | |
By: Douglas Hyde (1860-1949) | |
|---|---|
Legends of Saints and Sinners
"I have called the present volume "Legends of Saints and Sinners," which to a certain extent it is; but I mean it for a book of Irish Christian folk-lore. My idea in compiling it has been to give for the first time a collection of genuine Irish folk-lore which might be called "Christian." By this I mean folk-stories and folk-poems which are either entirely founded upon Christian conceptions, or else are so far coloured by them, that they could never have been told—at least in their present shape—had not Christianity established itself in Ireland... | |
By: Joseph Jacobs (1854-1916) | |
|---|---|
More Celtic Fairy Tales
More fairy tales from the early days of the British Isles, collected and edited by Joseph Jacobs. - Summary by bookworm360 | |
By: Various | |
|---|---|
Myths and Legends Around the World - Collection 03
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 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. | |
By: André Gide (1869-1951) | |
|---|---|
Prometheus Illbound
There is a witty and absurdist character to this contemporary setting of the plight of Prometheus, in which Zeus appears as a tremendously wealthy banker, meting out gratuitous fortune. Prometheus' troubled relationship with his liver-devouring eagle provides a means of insight for those he encounters. Rather than a myth the story has the nature of a fable. | |
By: Klara Stroebe (1887-1932) | |
|---|---|
Norwegian Fairy Book
These Norwegian tales of elemental mountain, forest and sea spirits, have been handed down by hinds and huntsmen, wood choppers and fisher folk. They are men who led a hard and lonely life amid primitive surroundings. The Norwegian Fairy Book has an appeal for one and all, since it is a book in which the mirror of fairy-tale reflects human yearnings and aspirations, human loves, ambitions and disillusionments, in an imaginatively glamored, yet not distorted form. [from the book's preface] | |
By: Various | |
|---|---|
Myths and Legends Around the World - Collection 06
You get to choose what you want to read! 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 , 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 | |
By: M. E. S. Wright | |
|---|---|
Medley of Weather Lore
A Medley of Weatherlore is a compilation of poems, sayings, and bits of folklore for each month of the year. - Summary by A. Gramour | |
By: Various | |
|---|---|
Myths and Legends Around the World - Collection 08
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. | |