The Old-Fashioned Fairy Book

This collection gathers nineteenth-century retellings of traditional fairy tales, legends, and medieval romances arranged into two parts: domestic fairy tales featuring enchanted princesses, helpful fairies, witches, dwarfs, ogres, and magical objects, and a second sequence of chivalric romances and Breton lais recounting trials, transformations, and love tested by fate. Stories move between whimsical household enchantments and darker supernatural peril, often resolving by cleverness, loyalty, or supernatural intervention. Language and illustration lean toward Victorian sensibilities, with pared-down plots and moralizing touches appropriate for young readers while preserving motifs of quest, disguise, and restitution.