Many of us have grown up hearing the same few tired fairy tales over and over. The hero or heroine would have a nice little adventure. No more than a single drop of blood would be spilled, and they would save the day. Often, this would be with a plethora of singing and dancing woodland creatures, trees, stones and even furnature. The tale often seems to have a dark root at it's core that has been painted over with gaudy, bright colours that leave the reader nothing to fear. This would seem to be the americanized ideal of fairy tales.
I'd like to say that Andrew Lang set out with the intention of changing all that. Unfortunately, I cannot in truth say that. The tales in these books were written before the cotton-candy fairy tale age came into fullness.
Instead I can contentedly say: "Here are the tales as they were meant to be told." "Here are the tales that give a child a name to their nameless fears" "Here are the tales that show us the world even as they show us ourselves"
