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A review by toriedawn1
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
2.0
I am only reviewing the Beauty and the beast story however have also read most of the others. In my opinion Andrew Langs collection of stories, though vast and diverse is a collection of sub par versions. Not a single story I read seemed the best of its kind, they seemed to lack the level of feeling I would expect in a fairytale.
Now onto beauty and the beast. It was such a waste of my time to read this book. I have read many retellings of beauty and the beast, some similar to the original, some barely recognizable, this is the first version that I have read tbat felt like blatant plagiarism. This book is an almost exact replica of Villeneuve's original story, it reminded me of the people who wrote essays in school but just copied someone elses, only changing the way it was worded. There is a section of the original version that has been removed in Andrew Lang's retelling but that appears to be the only noticeable difference. I wouldnt bother with this retelling if you can access the original version instead. What I would say is he does simplify the language, there are many better versions out there with easier language than the original, so id much rather read one of them. In theory this book should recieve the same star rating as the original but most I can manage is 2 stars as I dont like being tricked into reading what amounts to a different translation.
Now onto beauty and the beast. It was such a waste of my time to read this book. I have read many retellings of beauty and the beast, some similar to the original, some barely recognizable, this is the first version that I have read tbat felt like blatant plagiarism. This book is an almost exact replica of Villeneuve's original story, it reminded me of the people who wrote essays in school but just copied someone elses, only changing the way it was worded. There is a section of the original version that has been removed in Andrew Lang's retelling but that appears to be the only noticeable difference. I wouldnt bother with this retelling if you can access the original version instead. What I would say is he does simplify the language, there are many better versions out there with easier language than the original, so id much rather read one of them. In theory this book should recieve the same star rating as the original but most I can manage is 2 stars as I dont like being tricked into reading what amounts to a different translation.