More English Fairy Tales (1894)

Compiled and Edited by Joseph Jacobs

Illustrated by John D. Batten

Joseph Jacob’s first volume—English Fairy Tales [1890]—did not exhaust the scanty remains of traditional English folktales. Most of the forty-four tales that appear in More English Fairy Tales had never before appeared in print.

In compiling More English Fairy Tales [1894], Joseph Jacobs flouted the Florklorist’s creed, choosing to present stories that would fill children's imaginations “with bright trains of images”. Vividly painted princesses, Pied Pipers, pots of gold, giants, speaking cats, Kings, Hoybahs, wise men, washerwomen, and more overflow from this volume, all bound by the common threads of basic moral lessons. You might say that these are the classic tales of Olde England.

Stories written down just as they were spoken

Many of the tales were recorded verbatim from storytellers. They are by no means in an "authorised" form, and even touch on the “vulgar” using archaic and colloquial English. In the times following Jacob’s original printing, the literary establishment objected to the use of such archaic colloquialisms. These tales were told for generations in a form that used these dialects and
”vulgar” words for effect.  However, the traditional form makes these stories all the richer in a modern setting.

We invite you to curl up with this volume and be transported back in time to when England had a hundred or more local dialects—a time when the words Lawkamercyme and noddle were commonplace and be content in the knowledge that your purchase has benefited an underprivileged person somewhere.