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The Pink Fairy Book

by Andrew LANG (1844 - 1912)

The Cunning Shoemaker

All people in the world tell nursery tales to their children, and the stories are apt to be like each other everywhere. A child who has read the Blue and Red and Yellow Fairy Books will find some old friends with new faces in the Pink Fairy Book. Courage, youth, beauty, kindness, have many trials, but they always win the battle; while witches, giants, unfriendly cruel people, are on the losing hand. So it ought to be, and so, on the whole, it is and will be; and that is all the moral of fairy tales. We cannot all be young, alas! and pretty, and strong; but nothing prevents us from being kind, and no kind man, woman, or beast or bird, ever comes to anything but good in these oldest fables of the world. (Summary of the Author's Preface by Elliott Miller)

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Listen next episodes of The Pink Fairy Book:
Catherine and Her Destiny , Don Giovanni De La Fortuna , Esben and the Witch , How the Hermit Helped to Win the King's Daughter , King Lindorm , Maiden Bright-eye , Master and Pupil , Princess Minon-minette , The Golden Lion , The Jackal, the Dove, and the Panther , The King Who Would Have a Beautiful Wife , The Little Hare , The Man Without a Heart , The Merry Wives , The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue , The Sprig of Rosemary , The Story of Ciccu , The Troll's Daughter , The Two Brothers , The Water of Life , The White Dove , The Wounded Lion