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Andrew Lang's Fairy Books (also known as Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors) are a series of twelve collections of fairy tales, published between 1889 and 1910. Each volume is distinguished by its own color. In all, 437 tales from a broad range of cultures and countries are presented. Andrew Lang (1844–1912) was a Scots poet, novelist, and literary critic. Although he did not collect the stories himself from oral primary sources only Madame d'Aulnoy and Lang had collected tales from such a large variety of sources, which made the collections immensely influential. Lang gave many of the tales their first appearance in English. As acknowledged in the prefaces, although Lang himself made most of the selections, his wife and other translators did a large portion of the translating and retelling of the actual stories. According to Anita Silvey, "The irony of Lang's life and work is that although he wrote for a profession—literary criticism; fiction; poems; books and articles on anthropology, mythology, history, and travel…he is best recognized for the works he did ''not'' write."〔Anita Silvey, ''Children's Books and Their Creators,'' Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995; p. 387.〕 The books were primarily illustrated by Henry J. Ford. Lancelot Speed and G. P. Jacomb-Hood also contributed some illustrations. ==Origin and influence== Lang's urge to gather and publish fairy tales was rooted in his own experience with the folk and fairy tales of his home territory along the English-Scottish border. At the time he worked, English fairy-tale collections were rare: Dinah Maria Mulock Craik's ''The Fairy Book'' (1869) was a lonely precedent. When Lang began his efforts, he "was fighting against the critics and educationists of the day", who judged the traditional tales' "unreality, brutality, and escapism to be harmful for young readers, while holding that such stories were beneath the serious consideration of those of mature age".〔Roger Lancelyn Green, "Andrew Lang in Fairyland", in: Sheila Egoff, G. T. Stubbs, and L. F. Ashley, eds., ''Only Connect: Readings on Children's Literature,'' New York, Oxford University Press; second edition, 1980; p. 250.〕 Over a generation, Lang's books worked a revolution in this public perception. The series was immensely popular, helped by Lang's reputation in folklore, and by the packaging device of the uniform books. The series proved of great influence in children's literature, increasing the popularity of fairy tales over tales of real life.〔Betsy Hearne, "Booking the Brothers Grimm: Art, Adaptations and Economics", p 221 James M. McGlathery, ed. ''The Brothers Grimm and Folktale'', ISBN 0-252-01549-5〕 It inspired such imitators as ''English Fairy Tales'' (1890) and ''More English Fairy Tales'' (1894) by Joseph Jacobs. Other followers included the American ''The Oak-Tree Fairy Book'' (1905), ''The Elm-Tree Fairy Book'' (1909) and ''The Fir-Tree Fairy Book'' (1912), series edited by Clifton Johnson and the collections of Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Andrew Lang's Fairy Books」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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