The Violet Fairy Book (1901)

Overall, it's a good compilation. I read all but a little bit of one story (the near-end of that one didn't set well with me). It has quite a few stories. It seemed a good overview of this sort of fairy tale. I'm not sure which regions these ones were from. ( )

This was the first anthology by Andrew Lang I read, and after doing so I was hooked. I marvelled at how uniquely told all of the tales within this collection are, some are known and others much more obscure. I find this more of an adult fascination that arose in me for the need that was hardly taken care of in children's fantasy literature, which Lang takes care of. I realize that some of the stories are much more gruesomely told even more so, than Grimm's depiction of other similar tales. I loved the artwork and I now wish to read through all of the collection of his anthology I now own, hunting for my favorite illustration and blow it up, and put it in my room.
Somehow, I noticed it was quite easier for me to get drawn in and read the Violet Fairy Book without having to work at it, than it was for me to really get into the Red and I wonder if that had anything to do with when the works were written? Because I know Lang compiled the Red as his second collection, which came following the Blue, and within a span of time later on, did the Violet. ( )

There are many 'exotic' fairy tales in this volume, with stories originally in Swahili and Japanese, from Italy and Romania.

I haven't had much exposure to African tales, and I thought that the emphasis on animals and their wisdom over man was quite different from European tales. ( )