Books with title The True Story Book

It is not without diffidence that the editor offers The True Story Book to children. We have now given them three fairy books, and their very kind and flattering letters to the editor prove, not only that they like the three fairy books, but that they clamour for more. What disappointment, then, to receive a volume full of adventures which actually happened to real people! There is not a dragon in the collection, nor even a giant; witches, here, play no part, and almost all the characters are grown up. On the other hand, if we have no fairies, we have princes in plenty, and a sweeter young prince than Tearlach (as far as this part of his story goes) the editor flatters himself that you shall nowhere find, not in Grimm, or Dasent, or Perrault. Still, it cannot be denied that true stories are not so good as fairy tales. They do not always end happily, and, what is worse, they do remind a young student of lessons and schoolrooms. A child may fear that he is being taught under a specious pretence of diversion, and that learning is being thrust on him under the disguise of entertainment. Prince Charlie and Cortés may be asked about in examinations, whereas no examiner has hitherto set questions on 'Blue Beard,' or 'Heart of Ice,' or 'The Red Etin of Ireland.' There is, to be honest, no way of getting over this difficulty. But the editor vows that he does not mean to teach anybody, and he has tried to mix the stories up so much that no clear and consecutive view of history can possibly be obtained from them; moreover, when history does come in, it is not the kind of history favoured most by examiners. They seldom set questions on the conquest of Mexico, for example.

The conception of " The True Story Book " by Mr. Andrew Lang, was an admirable one, for no more fascinating stories of adventure could possibly be devised than some which have been enacted in this work-a-day world. This volume takes the place of Mr. Lang's annual fairy book, and relates strange episodes from the lives of Prince Charlie, Grace Darling, Benvenuto Cellini, Cervantes, Baron Trenck, Cesare Borgia, Cortes, and many another scapegrace and hero. This book is fully illustrated and annotated with a rare extensive biographical sketch of the author, Andrew Lang, written by Sir Edmund Gosse, CB, a contemporary poet and writer.

IT is not without diffidence that the editor offers The True Story Book to children. We have now given them three fairy books, and their very kind and flattering letters to the editor prove, not only that they like the three fairy books, but that they clamour for more. What disappointment, then, to receive a volume full of adventures which actually happened to real people! There is not a dragon in the collection, nor even a giant; witches, here, play no part, and almost all the characters are grown up. On the other hand, if we have no fairies, we have princes in plenty, and a sweeter young prince than Tearlach (as far as this part of his story goes) the editor flatters himself that you shall nowhere find, not in Grimm, or Dasent, or Perrault. Still, it cannot be denied that true stories are not so good as fairy tales. They do not always end happily, and, what is worse, they do remind a young student of lessons and schoolrooms. A child may fear that he is being taught under a specious pretence of diversion, and that learning is being thrust on him under the disguise of entertainment. Prince Charlie and Cortés may be asked about in examinations, whereas no examiner has hitherto set questions on 'Blue Beard,' or 'Heart of Ice,' or 'The Red Etin of Ireland.' There is, to be honest, no way of getting over this difficulty. But the editor vows that he does not mean to teach anybody, and he has tried to mix the stories up so much that no clear and consecutive view of history can possibly be obtained from them; moreover, when history does come in, it is not the kind of history favoured most by examiners. They seldom set questions on the conquest of Mexico, for example.

It is not without diffidence that the editor offers The True Story Book to children. We have now given them three fairy books, and their very kind and flattering letters to the editor prove, not only that they like the three fairy books, but that they clamour for more. What disappointment, then, to receive a volume full of adventures which actually happened to real people! There is not a dragon in the collection, nor even a giant; witches, here, play no part, and almost all the characters are grown up. On the other hand, if we have no fairies, we have princes in plenty, and a sweeter young prince than Tearlach (as far as this part of his story goes) the editor flatters himself that you shall nowhere find, not in Grimm, or Dasent, or Perrault. Still, it cannot be denied that true stories are not so good as fairy tales. They do not always end happily, and, what is worse, they do remind a young student of lessons and schoolrooms. A child may fear that he is being taught under a specious pretence of diversion, and that learning is being thrust on him under the disguise of entertainment. Prince Charlie and Cortés may be asked about in examinations, whereas no examiner has hitherto set questions on 'Blue Beard,' or 'Heart of Ice,' or 'The Red Etin of Ireland.' There is, to be honest, no way of getting over this difficulty. But the editor vows that he does not mean to teach anybody, and he has tried to mix the stories up so much that no clear and consecutive view of history can possibly be obtained from them; moreover, when history does come in, it is not the kind of history favoured most by examiners. They seldom set questions on the conquest of Mexico, for example.

There is not a dragon in the collection, nor even a giant; witches, here, play no part, and almost all the characters are grown up. On the other hand, if we have no fairies, we have princes in plenty, and a sweeter young prince than Tearlach (as far as this part of his story goes) the editor flatters himself that you shall nowhere find, not in Grimm, or Dasent, or Perrault. Still, it cannot be denied that true stories are not so good as fairy tales. They do not always end happily, and, what is worse, they do remind a young student of lessons and schoolrooms... There is, to be honest, no way of getting over this difficulty. But the editor vows that he does not mean to teach anybody, and he has tried to mix the stories up so much that no clear and consecutive view of history can possibly be obtained from them; moreover, when history does come in, it is not the kind of history favoured most by examiners. They seldom set questions on the conquest of Mexico, for example.

Andrew Lang's Fairy Books are a series of twenty-five collections of true and fictional stories for children, published between 1889 and 1913. The best known books of the series are the twelve collections of fairy tales, known as Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors. In all, the volumes feature 798 stories, besides the 153 poems in The Blue Poetry Book. The True Story Book contains twenty-four true stories, mainly drawn from European history. Stories Included Within This Book: A Boy among the Red Indians Casanova's Escape Adventures on the Findhorn The Story of Grace Darling The 'Shannon' and the 'Chesapeake' Captain Snelgrave and the Pirates The Spartan Three Hundred Prince Charlie's Wanderings Two Great Matches The Story of Kaspar Hauser An Artist's Adventure The Tale of Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift How Lief the Lucky found Vineland the Good The Escapes of Cervantes The Worthy Enterprise of John Foxe Baron Trenck The Adventure of John Rawlins The Chevalier Johnstone's Escape from Culloden The Adventures of Lord Pitsligo The Escape of Caesar Borgia from the Castle of Medina del Campo The Kidnapping of the Princes The Conquest of Montezuma's Empire Adventures of Bartholomew Portugues, a Pirate The Return of the French Freebooters

Andrew Lang's Fairy Books are a series of twenty-five collections of true and fictional stories for children, published between 1889 and 1913. The best known books of the series are the twelve collections of fairy tales, known as Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors. In all, the volumes feature 798 stories, besides the 153 poems in The Blue Poetry Book. Contains thirty true stories, mainly drawn from European history. Includes the life of Joan of Arc and the Jacobite uprising of 1745. Stories Included Within This Book: Wilson's Last Fight The Life and Death of Joan the Maid How the Bass was held for King James The Crowning of Ines de Castro The Story of Orthon How Gustavus Vasa won his Kingdom Monsieur de Bayard's Duel Story of Gudbrand of the Dales Sir Richard Grenville The Story of Molly Pitcher The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and Imminent Escapes of Captain Richard Falconer Marbot's March Eylau. The Mare Lisette How Marbot crossed the Danube The Piteous Death of Gaston, Son of the Count of Foix Rolf Stake The Wreck of the 'Wager' Peter Williamson A Wonderful Voyage The Pitcairn Islanders A Relation of three years' Suffering of Robert Everard upon the Island of Assada, near Madagascar, in a voyage to India, in the year 1686 The Fight at Svolder Island The Death of Hacon the Good Prince Charlie's War The Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition The Story of Emund The Man in White The Adventures of 'The Bull of Earlstoun' The Story of Grisell Baillie's Sheep's Head The Conquest of Peru

Andrew Lang lived from 31 March 1844 to 20 July 1912. He was a prolific Scottish historian, translator, journalist, poet, writer, teacher, biographer and anthropologist. He is best remembered as a collector of folk and fairy tales: and a series of lectures at St Andrews University is named after him. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline. Andrew was born in Selkirk as the oldest of eight children of the town clerk, John Lang, and his wife, Jane Plenderleath Sellar, daughter of Patrick Sellar, the infamous factor of the Sutherland estates responsible for some of the worst excesses of The Clearances. Andrew was educated at Selkirk grammar school, Edinburgh Academy, St Andrews University and Balliol College, Oxford. He later became a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and rapidly made his name as a highly able and versatile author, poet, critic, historian and journalist.On 17 April 1875 he married Leonora Blanche Alleyne, with whom he later collaborated in the collection and translation of fairy stories from around the world. His series of books of fairy stories included the first publication in English of a number of classics such as "Little Red Riding Hood", "The Story of Three Bears", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Snow Queen", "Rapunzel", and "The Emperor's New Clothes".As a classicist, Lang collaborated in the publication of prose translations of Homer's poems "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey". He also wrote a series of books that underpinned the emerging field of "Psychical Research," and he became the President of the Society for Psychical Research in 1911. Other areas of interest were reflected in books as diverse as "The Ballads and Lyrics of Old France" (1872); "The Life and Letters of JG Lockhart" (1897); "Books and Bookmen" (1886); plus novels, short stories, poetry, plays, criticism and more. A sense of the scale of his output can be gained from the fact that he published no fewer that 13 books between 1910 and 1912.From a purely Scottish perspective, Lang made a major contribution to the understanding of Scottish history. His four volume "A History of Scotland - From the Roman Occupation" which appeared between 1900 and 1907 remains of interest today, as does his one volume "A Short History of Scotland", a distillation of the earlier work, published in 1911. His "The Mystery of Mary Stuart" (1901) was seen as breaking new ground at the time, and other major works included "James VI and the Gowrie Mystery" (1902); "John Knox and the Reformation" (1905); and "Pickle the Spy" (1897), which was an account of the life of Alestair Ruadh MacDonnell, who he said was "Pickle", a government spy in the Jacobite camp after the 1745 uprising.Andrew Lang died of a heart attack while staying at the Tor-na-Coille Hotel in Banchory on 20 July 1912. He was buried in the precinct of St Andrews Cathedral.