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Zusatztext “A superb anthology. The keynote of the collection is pure enchantment.” — The Washington Post Book World “The language is elegant and lush! shot through with starlight and rainbows.” — The Philadelphia Inquirer “A delight.” —Madeleine L’Engle Informationen zum Autor MICHAEL PATRICK HEARN is a scholar of children's books and their illustration. His many works include The Annotated Wizard of Oz, The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, The Annotated Christmas Carol, The Andrew Lang Fairy Tale Books, and Myth, Magic, and Mystery: One Hundred Years of American Children's Book Illustration. He lives in New York City. Klappentext From Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin and William Makepeace Thackeray's The Rose and the Ring to Kenneth Grahme's The Reluctant Dragon and J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, here are seventeen classic stories and poems from the golden age of the English fairy tale. Some of them amuse, some enchant, some satirize and criticize, but each one is an expression of the joy of living. Accompanied by illustrations from the original editions of these works this collection will delight readers both young and old.Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library From THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER or The Black Brothers by John Ruskin I How the Agricultural System of the Black Brothers Was Interfered with by South West Wind, Esquire In a secluded and mountainous part of Stiria, there was, in old time, a valley of the most surprising and luxuriant fertility. It was surrounded, on all sides, by steep and rocky mountains, rising into peaks, which were always covered with snow, and from which a number of torrents descended in constant cataracts. One of these fell westward, over the face of a crag so high, that, when the sun had set to everything else, and all below was darkness, his beams still shone full upon this waterfall, so that it looked like a shower of gold. It was, therefore, called by the people of the neighborhood, the Golden River. It was strange that none of these streams fell into the valley itself. They all descended on the other side of the mountains, and wound away through broad plains and by populous cities. But the clouds were drawn so constantly to the snowy hills, and rested so softly in the circular hollow, that in time of drought and heat, when all the country round was burnt up, there was still rain in the little valley; and its crops were so heavy, and its hay so high, and its apples so red, and its grapes so blue, and its wine so rich, and its honey so sweet, that it was a marvel to every one who beheld it, and was commonly called the Treasure Valley. The whole of this little valley belonged to three brothers, called Schwartz, Hans, and Gluck. Schwartz and Hans, the two elder brothers, were very ugly men, with overhanging eyebrows and small dull eyes, which were always half shut, so that you couldn’t see into them, and always fancied they saw very far into you. They lived by farming the Treasure Valley, and very good farmers they were. They killed everything that did not pay for its eating. They shot the blackbirds, because they pecked the fruit; and killed the hedgehogs, lest they should suck the cows; they poisoned the crickets for eating the crumbs in the kitchen, and smothered the cicadas, which used to sing all summer in the lime-trees. They worked their servants without any wages, till they would not work any more, and then quarreled with them, and turned them out of doors without paying them. It would have been very odd, if with such a farm, and such a system of farming, they hadn’t gotten very rich; and very rich they did get. They generally contrived to keep their corn by them till it was very dear, and then sell it...
