Victorian Fairy Tales

Michael Newton has taught at University College London, Princeton University, and Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design, and now works at Leiden University. He is the author of Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children (Faber, 20002), Age of Assassins: A History of Conspiracy and Poltical Violence, 1865-1981 (Faber, 2012) and a book on Kind Hearts and Coronets for the BFI Film Classics series. He has edited Edmund Gosse's Father and Son for Oxford World's Classics, and The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories and Conrad's The Secret Agent for Penguin. He has written and reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, the New Statesman, and The Guardian.

Whimsical or romantic, sharply satirical or fogged with mystery, these powerful tales by the likes of Thackeray, Wilde and doyenne of the genre Mary De Morgan probe the deepest human concerns, while reflecting the more of the period.

• INTRODUCTION; NOTE ON THE TEXTS; SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY; A CHRONOLOGY OF THE VICTORIAN FAIRY TALE; PROLOGUE: GRIMM, 'RUMPEL-STILTS-KIN' AND HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, 'THE PRINCESS AND THE PEAS'; ROBERT SOUTHEY, 'THE STORY OF THE THREE BEARS'; JOHN RUSKIN, 'THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER'; WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, 'THE ROSE AND THE RING'; GEORGE MACDONALD, 'THE GOLDEN KEY'; DINAH MULOCK CRAIK, 'THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE AND HIS TRAVELLING CLOAK'; MARY DE MORGAN, 'THE WANDERINGS OF ARASMON'; JULIANA HORATIA EWING, 'THE FIRST WIFE'S WEDDING RING'; OSCAR WILDE, 'THE SELFISH GIANT'; ANDREW LANG, 'PRINCE PRIGIO'; FORD MADOX FORD, 'THE QUEEN WHO FLEW'; LAURENCE HOUSMAN, 'THE STORY OF THE HERONS'; KENNETH GRAHAME, 'THE RELUCTANT DRAGON'; E. NESBIT, 'MELISANDE'; RUDYARD KIPLING, 'DYMCHURCH FLIT'; APPENDIX: WHAT IS A FAIRY TALE?'; EXPLANATORY NOTES