Especially for grown-ups, this is a selection of subversive, satirical, and sophisticated fairy tales full of polished wit and prose.

"[Dunsany's] rich language, his cosmic point of view, his remote dream-worlds, and his exquisite sense of the fantastic, all appeal to me more than anything else in modern literature."--American author H. P. Lovecraft One of English literature's most original talents, Irish writer Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, the eighteenth Baron of Dunsany, created many of the best fantastic tales in the language. This collection of 33 stories includes all of the tales from two of his finest collections, including "The Three Sailors' Gambit," "The House of the Sphinx," "The Wonderful Window," "The Bad Old Woman in Black," "The Watch-Tower," "The Three Infernal Jokes," "The Secret of the Sea," and 26 other literary gems.

Brigit ceased to sing, and there was silence for a little space in Tir-na-Moe. Then Angus said: "Strange are the words of your song, and strange the music: it swept me down steeps of air--down--down--always further down. Tir-na-Moe was like a dream half-remembered. I felt the breath of strange worlds on my face, and always your song grew louder and louder, but you were not singing it. Who was singing it?" "The Earth was singing it." "The Earth!" said the Dagda. "Is not the Earth in the pit of chaos? Who has ever looked into that pit or stayed to listen where there is neither silence nor song? " "O Shepherd of the Star-Flocks, I have stayed to listen. I have shuddered in the darkness that is round the Earth. I have seen the black hissing waters and the monsters that devour each other--I have looked into the groping writhing adder-pit of hell." The light that pulsed about the De Danaan lords grew troubled at the thought of that pit, and they cried out: "Tell us no more about the Earth, O Flame of the Two Eternities, and let the thought of it slip from yourself as a dream slips from the memory." "O Silver Branches that no Sorrow has Shaken," said Brigit, "hear one thing more! The Earth wails all night because it has dreamed of beauty."

Includes twenty-seven folktales from Europe, Asia, Africa, India, the Arctic, and the Americas.

Marina Warner has gathered together a magical collection of fairy tales by the great women storytellers of the 17th and 18th centuries. These are passionate, extraordinary, and occasionally proto-feminist retellings of classic fairy stories by women who ingeniously used the fairy tale genre to comment on their own times and experiences. The stories are all in superb new translations by celebrated writers, including A. S. Byatt, Gilbert Adair and John Ashbery. With a brilliant intorduction by Marina Warner, recognised as one of our greatest experts on myth and fairy tale.

If Orfeo is to be king, his mother decides, he must sleep outside. And so Orfeo sleeps in the meadow and becomes friends with the animals, birds, insects and beetles. Then one day, he agrees to help a jackdaw return a ruby ring to a princess... King Beetle Tamer is just one of fifteen magical wonder tales in this collection by master storyteller Isabel Wyatt. The stories are full of magic and unicorns, fairies and palaces, roses and gold, which will transport children to a world of faraway places and heroic deeds._x000D_ Suitable for children aged seven and up, this is a classic collection from the author of The Seven-Year-Old Wonder Book._x000D_ A new revised edition, previously published as King Beetle-Tamer.

A collection of seven tales from around the world featuring remarkable animals and extraordinary people reminding us of how vast and mysterious the world is and how our lives can be transformed in the most unexpected circumstances.