Langs Fairy Tales
Based Books
Langs Fairy Tales
Folio Edition
Andrew Lang collected fairy stories from around the world and compiled them in the legendary colour books, beginning with blue and ending in lilac. Although those original first editions are relatively easy to source on the second-hand market, mint condition are rarer and of course demand a price accordingly. The Folio editions are perhaps those most sought after, however some of these, particularly the Orange and Grey are very difficult to get hold of, you wouldn’t get much, if any, change from £1500 for just those two books.
Based books, have reprinted the original versions….apparently, as I am missing a couple in the collection (though I collect the folio versions), Orange, Grey and Lilac, I decided, in the meantime I’d purchase one of these reprints. I can read the text if I want, they’re freely available, copyright free, online. (Here is a link to the whole series) But. I like books.
Initially, I was of the opinion Based Books were an independent book publisher, producing their own books, but it transpires, its just ‘print on demand’. Basically, anyone can create a pdf format of a book, upload to Amazon and they will create and print the book as and when it is purchased. I’m not wholly against this idea. The keep silence editions of Aleister Crowley’s 10 volumes of The Equinox, I believe, were print on demand and I bought them and loved them. I then bought the first edition of The Yellow Book, Aubrey Beardsley’s ‘outrageous’ and scandalous’ quarterly magazine from the 1890’s. It was print on demand (and I had been kicking myself for not indulging in the purchase of an original set, though costly – were in very good condition, an investment, an asset.) Anyway, when the on-demand version arrived it was awful. The text was o.k but the illustrations, bearing in mind it is Aubrey Beardsley’s work that make these so sought after were poorly printed. Some pages little more than an inkblot.
However, despite the bad experience with The Yellow Book, the adverts on Facebook timeline declared of Based Book’s faithful and true to the original edition~ , ‘A Stunning reproduction” – what a gullible fool such as I- purchased immediately. I bought the Orange book, perhaps the rarest Folio edition to source.
Normally, my reviews are concerned with content, rare do I waffle on about the the binding, foil stamping and what not. It was c.£30 which is quite expensive for a print on demand, even if it is a hardback. Lay it flat and it all bows out,( pictured). The illustrations, were again poorly printed, there were no colour plates as listed in some of the blurbs and adverts, all greyscale.
The text, well, we can all cut and paste from a variety of sources on the internet.
By contrast as examples, Watkins Book (pictured) of say, English Folk Tales is £14.99 and Arcturus Book of Irish Fairy Stories (pictured), with Gold edging and Gold block cover is £19.99. By comparison, this rendering of Lang’s work should be priced at no more than £12.99. My complaint is not so much the work, which is a poor rendition seeing as the majority of the hype beforehand concerns how great and wonderful to the original it is, it isn’t, but the price. I do/have/can spend over a hundred pounds on some new book, and the book itself is well produced and admittedly limited but the text and information inside-perhaps- pathetic- there again I am the fool, but that’s my concern and I can resell if I so wish being as it is usually an instant rarity. (I never do sell though so at least my daughter can enjoy the hassle of selling to render her inheritance). My issue here is that I feel cheated, not in the same way by a book that costs a hundred+ and isn’t worthy of a read, but by a book that promises to be alike a beautiful rendition but is in fact mutton dressed as mutton.
Why the Fascination with Fairy Stories
That said, there’s my review. Why do I enjoy fairy stories? at my age? ex-football hooligan, doctor martens, ex street-punk guitarist… hardly befitting is it? Because they stem from the oral tradition, because they belong to the people, they are regional, local, they’re ours. They change, adapted. Whereas religion is fixed and set in stone and history dependent on what history those who demand doffed caps greet them decide, fairy stories, fables, legend and to an extent myths arise from gossip, story telling, bedtime tales and campfire exchanges. Folktales, exactly that. Tales from the folk, not the presiding officer shoving his volumes of what not under our beaks to fully digest and remember.
In the Hindu pantheon we have Śruti (श्रुति) and Smṛti (स्मृति), now I was always of the opinion, Sruti is oral tradition, that which is taught by master to student, knowledge gained by tuition and example, whereas smriti is written knowledge, susceptible to translation faults and misinterpretation etc, however it goes much deeper. Sruti is unquestionable wisdom, Smriti is adaptable. In this example then Fairy Stories are quite low on the questers table being as there is no definite, no one story that encapsulates an idea. However, I suggest that Folk tales, Faery stories are archetypal, that which has not been consigned to a fixed parameter, which is organic with evolution and knowledge, even if it remains steadfast in a time before our time, of the past dreams and wonders. It is in the main oral tradition yes, and therfore could be considered low class, but also of a much older symbolic wisdom, which then is firmly in the field of past and higher wisdom
Besides which, it is escapism from reality bound restraints, the shackles of life.
Irish Fairy Folk Tales- W.B. Yeats Edited by Arcturus Press, £10 less than the block of Based Books effort, and the wonderful Watkins range of compendiums, half the price of the based Books.
The Based Books Orange Fairy Book looks so perfect next to the Folio editions that I have… doesn’t it?
I found this list of comparisons, I’m not sure I agree with the whole context in parts.
The Western Gate 
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