All the stories about Princes and Princesses in this book are true stories, and were written by Mrs. Lang, out of old books of history. There are some children who make life difficult by saying, first that stories about fairies are true, and that they like fairies; and next that they do not like true stories about real people, who lived long ago. I am quite ready to grant that there really are such things as fairies, because, though I never saw a fairy, any more than I have seen the little animals which lecturers call molecules and ions, still I have seen people who have seen fairies—truthful people. This book about Princes and Princesses is not one which a child is obliged to read. Indeed the stories are not put in order, beginning with the princes who lived longest ago and coming down gradually to people who lived nearest our own time. The book opens with the great Napoleon Bonaparte, who died when some very old people still living were alive. Napoleon was not born a prince, far from it; his father was only a poor gentleman on a wild rough little island. But he made himself not merely a king, but the greatest of all emperors and generals in war. He is not held up as a person whom every boy should try to imitate, but it is a truth that Napoleon always remained a boy in his heart. He liked to make up stories of himself, doing wonderful things which even he was unable to do. When he was a boy he played at being a general, making snow fortresses and besieging them, just as many boys do. And when he was a man he dreamed of conquering all the East, Asia, and India, and Australia; and he tried to do all that, but it was too much even for him.
Leonora Blanche Lang, nee Alleyne was the youngest daughter of C. T. Alleyne of Clifton and Barbados. On April 17, 1875 she married Andrew Lang (1844-1912) who wrote with her The Red Romance Book (1906) and edited her book, The Red Book of Heroes (1909). The Red Book of Heroes is a collection of stories full of illustrations.
Andrew Lang was an Oxford fellow and Scotsman who had a distinguished career as a poet, novelist and historian. His wife Leonora was extremely well-educated herself, having translated a history of Russia from the French and written several other books of her own. However, they are both remembered best for their series of 12 fairy tale books--beginning with the "Blue Fairy Book" in 1889 and ending with the "Lilac Fairy Book" in 1910. These quickly became the most popular gift books of all time and remained so for several decades. It was Andrew Lang's interest in anthropology that led him to collect and publish these folk tales from far-flung lands, most of which were unknown to English readers at the time. And though all of them were published in Andrew's name, his role was largely editorial--a great deal of the translating, adapting and rewriting was done by his wife Leonora and others. This husband and wife team next applied their highly successful formula for choosing, researching and adapting folk tales to the stories of the saints, creating "The Book of Saints and Heroes" in 1912, with a result that is both inspiring and fun to read. Add the illustrations by H.J. Ford, whose creations illuminated the Fairy Books, and you have a book which makes an ideal gift for any child.
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