Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Littell's Living Age, Vol. 209: April, May, June, 1896
To leave out the giant's exclamation, Odds splutter hur nails! Hur can do that trick hurselt, is to throw over board not merely an exquisite trait of nationality (the giant was a Welsh giant), but what, in the opinion of every child whose judgment is worth having, has long since been decided to be the very crowning point, the ah solutely supreme moment of the narra tive. Again, in J ack and the Bean stalk, Mr. J acobs dispenses, very wisely we think, with the fairy who informs J ack that the ogre had killed his father and stolen his possessions. The fairy and her information, be con siders, were introduced at a late date merely to give Jack a good title to the ogre's wealth, and are quite out of keeping with the rest of the story. Both Mr. Baring-gould and Mr. Lang, whose version is a very elaborate one, have the fairy; but Mr. Lang omits the excellent little touch of J ack's sur prise on waking in the morning and nuding his room quite dark, thanks to the beanstalk, which, with sudden growth, has obscured his window. It would be easy to give other instances of our doctors' differences; but what has been said may suffice to indicate how great is the scope for diversity oi! Opinion and taste. It is a question, too, how far these differences may be due not to unswerving fidelity to some imaginary original, but to editorial license. Mr. J acoba is quite frank in admitting that he has deliberately ai tered here and patched there; such candid confession disarms criticism, and we are content to accept his guid ance without serious cavil. But it is otherwise with Mr. Baring-gould, who is far too much inclined to abuse his editorial privileges, and who has him self supplied as with a sure means of testing his trustworthiness. It so hap pens, as most people know, that some of the best known and most popular fairy tales have an authorized and ac cepted version (we waive the question of their ultimate origin altogether).
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