I thought that I was familiar with most of the traditional English fairy tales, but this book is filled with some decidedly weird ones! The ones which are well known are easily identifiable as those where the hero is a valiant example of mankind, the princess is a typically lovely damsel, or the humour doesn't stray too far to the macabre, but I'm glad that Steel included some of the stranger tales in this volume. Just like other fairytales, they tell us how humanity lives, the things we fear, and ultimately of the intellectual creativity that abounded even in simpler times. Some of the lesser known stories may be a bit more disjointed in their telling and lack that crucial magic that makes other stories more popular, but some of them are even more amusing in their raw, whimsical forms. I particularly enjoyed the luxurious story and the eleves in "The Golden Snuff-Box," a tale which I am surprised hasn't gotten a movie treatment yetm and the story of Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar, a couple so frivolous and ridiculous that you can't help but laugh at their misfortune. "The Bogey-Beast" was also a surprisingly good little tale, for all its simplicity. In its raw form it doesn't have a lot going for it, but its moral about finding the benefit in whatever the universe gifts you with is excellent, and I couldn't help but find the old woman to be similar in character to the equally cheerful and indominatable Sophie Hatter from Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle. Arthur Rackham's illustrations for the stories were also very good, as expected, and benefitted from the oversized page-size of this particular volume. My favourite illustration, which I hadn't been familiar with before, was the ones to accompany "The Two Sisters." His composition showing the first sister hiding in an apple tree from the witch perfectly captures the central conflict between the characters and utilizes his trademark anthropomorphized tree to excellent regard. I kind of wish that Rackham had chosen to illustrate more of these stories in the style of modern children's books, but the publication limits of the time dictate that he mostly stick to books of compiled tales. It's a great way to explore a range of stories and a range of his artwork, but the broader stories would have given him so much more room to explore them - and you know I'm always in favour of more artwork! ( )

Some of these were good, but some got a bit repetative. Not bad overall, though. ( )

This Calla Edition of English Fairy Tales features many of the illustrations for which we remember Arthur Rackham. The tales include standards such as Little Red Riding Hood and Jack the Giant Killer and some tales that are variants, as Tattercoats is a variant of the traditional Cinderella tale. As you might hope, the production values for the book are quite high in terms of quality paper stock and lovely robust binding. Both mentally and visually stimulating! ( )

These are the original, not-very-PC fairy tales. But they are fascinating. ( )

A collection of 40 or so fairy tales, some long and some short, some well known and others obscure. Wonderful, memorable illustrations by Arthur Rackham, with 4 colour plates, but mostly black and white drawings. Some stories are scary, like Jack the Giant Killer, and some are funny. Suitable for ages 6 and up. Published in 1938. ( )