The Rose and the Ring (1854)

Sometimes I'm really sad that I'm an adult. When I was a child, I read an excerpt from this fairy tale and loved it. When I was a young adult in library school I saw that I had read only a excerpt and went in search of the entire book. That being in the dark ages before Amazon, it took me several decades to find the book. And, now, alas, after trying twice, I've found it unreadable. The character I really liked only appears in chapter 4. The rest of the characters are drawn to make moral points. The anti-drinking, dancing and card playing messages are ubiquitous. The story is long and it's rather clear how it will come out. So I've passed my copy on to someone younger who can overlook it's faults and still appreciate it. If only I'd had the whole book when I was twelve. ( )

Perfectly delightful illustrations in the Larger Dumpy Books for Children edition. ( )

Funny and charming, good for children and adults, lot of good messages ( )