Books of wonder

Here are thirty-one enchanting selections drawn from Andrew Lang's famous series of colorfully titled fairy tale anthologies. Scholar, poet, novelist, and literary critic, Lang tirelessly collected magical stories from cultures all over the world-stories, according to Lang, that "have been inherited by our earliest civilised ancestors, who really believed that beasts and trees and stones can talk if they choose, and behave kindly or unkindly." The...

The adventures of Tom, a sooty little chimney sweep with a great longing to be clean, who is stolen by fairies and turned into a water baby.

Nothing, it seems, can harm the valiant Lancelot. The most brilliant warrior to join the Knights of the Round Table, he vanquishes beasts and villains at every turn. But Lancelot's own pride and conflicts of loyalty threaten to destroy the hero, whose passion and instincts are the source of his greatest strength and gravest danger.