LANG, Andrew “The Rose Fairy Book” [Longmans, Green and Co., 1949]

LANG, Andrew. The Rose Fairy Book.

New York / London / Toronto: Longmans, Green and Co., 1949. Second printing. 8.25" x 5.5", xi + 212pp with 9 color plates and 9 black & white plates by Vera Bock. Original rose-pink cloth stamped in black with a central floral device to upper cover; spine lettered in black. Lacking dust jacket. Cloth shows moderate rubbing at extremities with some fading and light soiling to spine and edges; a few small surface marks to boards. Corners gently bumped. Bottom edge soiled. Internally clean; binding sound and square. Very Good- ex jacket.

This volume gathers a wide range of traditional tales drawn from earlier Fairy Books and diverse European sources, including “The Queen of the Flowery Isles,” “The Story of Bensurdatu,” “The Bear,” “The White Doe,” “The Golden Lion,” “The Water of Life,” “A Lost Paradise,” “The False Prince and the True,” and “How the Hermit Helped to Win the King’s Daughter.” Lang blends courtly romances, transformation tales, animal-bridegroom stories, and quest narratives, moving easily from French salon fairy tales to folkloric adventures shaped by older oral traditions.