“In this volume it has been the editor’s desire to furnish a fresh collection of fairy stories, written by authors who love children, and know exactly the kind of tales that gives them pleasure. Something more than providing enjoyment is attempted. Useful life lessons may be learnt from the book, which contains a most interesting collection of fairy stories, each telling its tale and pointing its moral in the happiest manner.”—The Gentlewoman.
“It is certain to become popular.”—Yorkshire Post.
“Type and illustrations are worthy of the Hull Press, which is saying a great deal.”—The News.
“The stories comprised in this volume deserve to be widely known and appreciated. There are some excellent illustrations, and the whole ‘get up’ reflects the highest credit alike on editor and publishers. It promises to be one of the books of the season.”—Stamford Mercury.
“‘The New Fairy Book’ is sure to win its way to the possession and favour of quite a host of young people. The stories are evidently, as the editor gives assurance, written by authors who love children and know the kind of tales that give them pleasure. The book is well printed, attractively bound, and freely illustrated.”—Liverpool Post.
“‘The New Fairy Book’ is the title of a richly bound volume containing fifteen fairy tales, edited by William Andrews. The tales are brimful of such fairy romance as youthful readers delight in. Fairy kings, queens, princes, and princesses, pass in bright procession through the pages, everyone of which presents some delightful picture from the imaginative pen. The scenes amid which these fairy personages move are not the less beautiful, and from first page to last there is not to be found a single dull or uninteresting page. The tales have been judiciously edited, and worthily fulfil the editor’s aim to ‘furnish a fresh collection of fairy stories written by authors who love children.’ Very many young readers will warmly thank him for so faithfully performing his loving task.”—Dundee Advertiser.
“Mr. Andrews’ ‘New Fairy Book’ is a delightful production. So far as binding, illustrations, and printing go, it leaves nothing to be desired, and from this standpoint alone must be pronounced a goodly book. But the contents are equally choice. Mr. Andrews has drawn around him a number of skilled story-tellers, who have one and all written with charm and originality. This Fairy Book differs from most of the others we have seen, inasmuch as the tales are—as the title of the volume indicates—absolutely new. It is true that they contain a number of the old ingredients, but then the makers of fairy tales must always work more or less from the time honoured recipe. This the contributors to the ‘New Fairy Book’ have done, but their effects are novel and surprising, for they serve up the dishes in varied ways of their own devising. The result is much to our taste. There are fifteen stories in all, simple in style, engaging and fresh in manner, with here and there a weird episode, here and there something amusing. Ghosts, elves, ogres, giants, princes, and, of course, fairy queens flit in and out of the scenes; castles of enchantment, and all the favourite features of fairyland are present; and so we are transported to the real kingdom of the fairies, and soon find ourselves absorbed in the adventures of wondrous heroes and the antics of imps. All this is as it should be, and the volume will afford genuine entertainment to all who read it—and there should be many—these long winter nights.”—Birmingham Gazette.
“‘The New Fairy Book,’ edited by William Andrews, is a somewhat ambitious attempt to add to the delightful repertoire of nursery stories with which the literature of all civilised countries abounds. The writers include several well known names, and though the titles chosen suggest in some cases old and familiar stories, it is due to the editor and the authors to say that they have discharged their really very onerous functions with great skill and excellent judgment. The volume is published as a collection of new stories, and if it should meet with the success it truly deserves, editor and writers will have every reason to be thankful.”—Leeds Mercury.
Bygone England:
Social Studies in its Historic Byways and Highways.