CONTENTSGracieuse and PercinetFair GoldilocksThe Blue BirdPrince ArielPrincess MayblossomPrincess RosetteThe Golden BranchThe Bee and the Orange TreeThe Good Little MouseThe RamFinette CendronFortun?eBabioleThe Yellow DwarfGreen SerpentPrincess CarpillonThe Benevolent FrogThe Hind in the WoodThe White CatBelle-BelleThe Pigeon and the DovePrincess Belle-EtoilePrince MarcassinThe Dolphin

Anne Thackeray Ritchie (1837 1919) was a writer and the eldest daughter of the novelist W. M. Thackeray. She had a tumultuous childhood: her mother suffered from depression and was eventually committed to a sanatorium, and the family experienced poverty before her father's literary success. Anne was extremely close to her father, who admired her intellect and encouraged her writing. When he died, Anne set up house with her sister Harriet and her brother-in-law, the literary journalist Leslie Stephen. Anne's novels were serialised in the Cornhill Magazine, which her father had edited, and...

FAIRY tales have long been an important part of the world's history and literature, especially for women whose voices have often been trivialized, ignored or made anonymous. Old wives' tales, fairy tales, and folklore-whatever terms are chosen-are part of our earliest literature and have often provided the medium for women's voices, for women's stories. Like the women of the French Salons who used traditional stories to create and recreate tales that both inspired and criticized their world and its expectations, women writers have long been recording and rewriting fairy tales for their own...

In 1823, after relatively undistinguished diplomatic missions to Sicily and China, Lord Amherst (1773 1857) was appointed Governor-general of Bengal, a compromise candidate following Canning's sudden withdrawal to become foreign secretary. Arriving in India, he found the country on the brink of war with Burma, which he was unable to prevent or quickly to resolve, resulting in an expensive and demoralising two-year campaign, and the death of his eldest son. This 1894 biography, written by Anne Thackeray Ritchie (1837 1919), elder daughter of the novelist, and journalist Richardson Evans (1846...

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.