High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.
He was very much admired indeed. "He is as beautiful as a weathercock," remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; "only not quite so useful," he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not.
"Why can't you be like the Happy Prince?" asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon. "The Happy Prince never dreams of crying for anything."
"I am glad there is some one in the world who is quite happy," muttered a disappointed man as he gazed at the wonderful statue.
"He looks just like an angel," said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks and their clean white pinafores.
The Just So Stories for Little Children were written by British author Rudyard Kipling. They are highly fantasised origin stories and are among Kipling's best known works.
The stories, first published in 1902, are pourquoi stories, fantastic accounts of how various phenomena came about.
A forerunner of these stories is "How Fear Came" in The Second Jungle Book (1895), in which Mowgli hears the story of how the tiger got his stripes.
The Just So Stories have a typical theme of a particular animal being modified from an original form to its current form by the acts of man, or some magical being. For example, the Whale has a tiny throat from a swallowed mariner who tied a raft in there to block the whale from swallowing others.
The Camel has a hump given to him by a djinn as punishment for the camel refusing to work (the hump allows the camel to work longer between eating).
The original editions of Just So Stories were illustrated by Kipling.
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Once upon a time and a long time ago there was a wonderful kingdom called Kingdom of the East ...
How to read the illustrated fairy tales:
Click on the first picture and move with to the next with the right arrow ....
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"The Story of the Three Bears" (sometimes known as "The Three Bears", "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" or, simply, "Goldilocks") is a fairy talefirst recorded in narrative form by British author and poet Robert Southey, and first published anonymously in a volume of his writings in 1837. The same year, British writer George Nicol published a version in rhyme based upon Southey's prose tale, with Southey approving the attempt to bring the story more exposure. Both versions tell of three bears and an old woman who trespasses upon their property.
"The Story of the Three Bears" was in circulation before the publication of Southey's 1837 version. In 1831, for example, Eleanor Mure fashioned a handmade booklet about the three bears for her nephew's birthday, and, in 1813, Southey was telling the story to friends. In 1894, "Scrapefoot", a tale with a fox as antagonist which bears striking similarities to Southey's story, was uncovered by the folklorist Joseph Jacobs and may predate Southey's version in the oral tradition. Southey possibly heard "Scrapefoot", and confused its "vixen" with a synonym for a crafty old woman. Some maintain however that the old woman was Southey's invention.
"The Story of the Three Bears" experienced two significant changes during its early publication history. Southey's intrusive old woman became an intrusive little girl in 1849, who was given various names referring to her hair until Goldilocks was settled upon in the early 20th century. Southey's three bachelor bears evolved into Father, Mother, and Baby Bear over the course of several years. What was originally a fearsome oral tale became a cozy family story with only a hint of menace. The story has elicited various interpretations and has been adapted to film, opera, and other media. "The Story of the Three Bears" is one of the most popular fairy tales in the English language.
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You know, one time the world was made just of light. Beams of light got down from the sky stroking everything and giving to each one a different color. Someone says from this phenomenon was born the word "universe": unique and different.
Anyway, this light ruled without rivals: there was not night, and there was not shadow. Not even a very tiny, like those that run away from children who can fly. After many years, something happened. Something very strange and misterious. Something so enigmatic that no one could explains.
Scientists, teachers, historians, brains, misfits tried but no one could understood. Anyway, after this... thing... the world was not made just of light anymore. From that time, there was the dark too. And with it, night and shadow. In one place one businnessman (that one can be called "borrower") invented a dynamo: a bike that goes nowhere. You turn the pedals, but you cannot move. In exchange, the dynamo makes light. Sweat for turn on the bulb light.
Three Little Pigs is a fairy tale featuring anthropomorphic animals. Printed versions date back to the 1840s, but the story itself is thought to be much older.
The phrases used in the story, and the various morals which can be drawn from it, have become enshrined in western culture.
"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
"No, no, not by the hair on my chinny chin chin."
"Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down."
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The Town Musicians of Bremen (German: Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten) is a folktale recorded by the Brothers Grimm. Despite the title of the fairy tale, the characters never actually arrive in Bremen. In Aarne-Thompson classification it is a folk tale of type 130: "outcast animals find a new home".
The tale has been retold through animated pictures, motion pictures (often musicals) and theatre plays. Jim Henson produced a version with his Muppets called The Muppet Musicians of Bremen. In the Soviet Union, the story was loosely adapted into an animated musical in 1969 by Yuri Entin and Vasily Livanov at the studio Soyuzmultfilm, Town Musicians of Bremen. It was followed by a sequel called On the Trail of the Town Musicians of Bremen. In 2000, a second 56-minute sequel was made, called The New Bremen Musicians.
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"The Emperor's New Clothes" (Danish: Kejserens nye Klæder) is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent.
When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!"
The tale has been translated into over a hundred languages.
"The Emperor’s New Clothes" was first published with "The Little Mermaid" in Copenhagen by C. A. Reitzel on 7 April 1837 as the third and final installment of Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. The tale has been adapted to various media, including the musical stage and animated film.
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"Rapunzel" (English: /r?'p?nz?l/; German pronunciation: [?a'p?nt?s?l]) is a German fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales.
The Grimm Brothers' story is an adaptation of the fairy tale Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force originally published in 1698.[2] Its plot has been used and parodied in various media and its best known line ("Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair") is an idiom of popular culture.In the Aarne–Thompson classification system for folktales it is type 310, "The Maiden in The Tower".[3]Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.
Other versions of the tale also appear in A Book of Witches by Ruth Manning-Sanders and in Paul O. Zelinsky's 1998 Caldecott Medal-winning picture book, Rapunzel and the Disney movie Tangled.Rapunzel's story has striking similarities to the 10th century AD Persian tale of Rudaba, included in the epic poem Shahnameh by Ferdowsi. Rudaba offers to let down her hair from her tower so that her lover Zal can climb up to her. Some elements of the fairy tale might also have originally been based upon the tale of Saint Barbara, who was said to have been locked in a tower by her father.
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Aladdin (Arabic: علاء الدين, ʻAlāʼ ad-Dīn, IPA: [ʕalaːʔ adˈdiːn]; meaning, "glory of religion") is a Middle Eastern folk tale.
It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland (see sources and setting).
Although Aladdin is a Middle Eastern tale, the story is set in China, and Aladdin is explicitly Chinese. However, the "China" of the story is an Islamic country, where most people are Muslims; there is a Jewish merchant who buys Aladdin's wares (and incidentally cheats him), but there is no mention of Buddhists or Confucians.
Everybody in this country bears an Arabic name, and its monarch seems much more like a Muslim ruler than a Chinese emperor. Some commentators believe that this suggests that the story might be set in Turkestan (encompassing Central Asia and the modern Chinese province of Xinjiang). It has to be said that this speculation depends on a knowledge of China that the teller of a folk tale (as opposed to a geographic expert) might well not possess, and that a deliberately exotic setting is in any case a common storytelling device.
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