Description
Product description
About the Author
Adrienne Segur (1901-1981)was a children’s book illustrator. Segur’s work was popularized by the publishing house Flammarion in the 1950s and 1960s. Segur was the director of the children’s column in Le Figaro, where she created all the illustrations.
Originally published in 1958, this book contains a selection of 28 traditional stories from the French, German, Danish, Russian and Japanese traditions. Includes The Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince, Puss in Boots, Thumbelina, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Beauty and the Beast.
R A –
The illustrations are beautiful.The 2nd fairy tale disgusted me as it was about a father wanting to marry his daughter. White skin colour is glorified as a beauty standard and sooty looked down on. It is too simplistic and poorly written. I haven’t finished reading this but clearly inappropriate for the recommended age group.
Book Collector –
Favorite fairy tale book from childhood
This book was my all time favorite in the 1950s. Great illustrations and well written stories. I just bought a copy (7 decades later) and am thrilled that it is still in print.
Kathy Cunningham –
Beautiful reprint of a childhood favorite — GORGEOUS!
My mother gave me a copy of THE GOLDEN BOOK OF FAIRY TALES in 1959, when I was seven years old. I know she bought it for me because of the gorgeous illustrations by Adrienne Segur, and they are wonderful, but I fell in love with the book because of the stories. By 1970 I had literally read this book to pieces — my mother finally threw the scraps away when I went off to college.You can’t imagine how delighted I was to discover that it had been reprinted and was available again, looking almost exactly like my original copy from 1959. This is not your usual collection of fairy tales. Yes, you’ll find a few of the more common stories (“Sleeping Beauty,” “Thumbelina,” and “Cinderella” are there), but there are other, more unusual tales, some of which I have found nowhere else (especially three by Madame d’Aulnoy that were my favorites — “Green Snake,” “The White Deer,” and “Bluecrest”).The illustrations, as others have pointed out, are glorious and worth the price of the book even if you don’t intend to read the stories. Yes, there are only 14 full-page, full-color plates, but each one is worthy of framing — and you’ll probably find yourself lost in them as I did back in 1959.One warning to parents: these stories are not the sanitized, Disney versions you may be used to. The “Sleeping Beauty” story, for example, is true to Charles Perrault’s version, and goes well beyond the “happily ever after” moment when Sleeping Beauty is awakened with the prince’s kiss. It’s the same with “Cinderella” — this is a bloody story, which might disturb younger children. I do believe, however, that one of the reasons children have always loved fairy tales is this element of horror (which has been removed from most of the stories we give our children today). I devoured these stories when I was a child — I would not have loved them as much had they been prettied up and sanitized. But it’s wise to know what you’re buying!Overall, this is a spectacular book worth far more than Amazon’s price. I was so excited when I discovered it again after so many years that I bought two — one to read and another so I could frame some of the beautiful plates.
S M Y –
lovely illustrations & stories
I had this book 60 years ago when i was a little girl, i’ve never seen another that compares to the quality of pictures and the unique folk tales
Susan –
Timeless.
I had this book as a child and I bought this one for my granddaughter. The illustrations are beautiful. The tales are more varied than those usually found in most fairy tale books in the US.