Russian Fairy Tales (Illustrated) Hardcover – April 8, 2023

I bought the Kindle version of this, and I was very pleased with it. I am looking at it on my iPhone, and I am sure that it is even better on a actual Kindle or a tablet. I was a little worried about the illustrations, but was encouraged by another review. The illustrations are beautiful, detailed, and glowing, and being on Kindle can be expanded to see the detail. These are long versions of the stories, which is fine with me. The automatic print is a little small, but of course can be enlarged, and probably is no problem on a larger device. My only complaint is that there is no table of contents and it is apparently not possible to bookmark the beginnings of the tales.Contents:Vasilisa the BeautifulMaria MorevnaFinist the FalconThe Frog-TsarevnaTsarevich Ivan, the Firebird and the Grey Wolf

Beautifully illustrated, gloriously told Russian fairy tales. Replete with beautiful maidens, wicked step mothers, huts on hen's legs, Firebirds, and heroic princelings.

This is a fantastic resource for Ivan Bilibin's artwork. Every page contains a detailed, decorative border. I counted 34 color illustrations/plates. Very cool typeface. A pen and ink or textile artist's dream!

It would be nice if this book contained a few more stories; it's a short volume of classic Russian stories. It's very nicely designed, with beautiful illustrations. My only problem is that is was packaged very carelessly -- just thrown in an oversized box -- and arrived with the cover warped. That is not the way to treat a fine, relatively expensive book (come to think of it, why package anything carelessly when someone has paid for the item and the shipping??). I bought this as a gift for my daughter, so I have a stack of books on top of it now hoping I can fix the cover.

The illustrations alone are enough for five stars, but the stories themselves are quite rich. It is a shame that Vasilisa the Beautiful, Maria Morevna, and Tsarevich Ivan do not appear more often in the English-speaking world!

If I was on my computer then I would probably compose an essay on how much I enjoyed this book. However, I'm currently on my iPhone six that has a shattered glass and I just don't have the patience to do so. What I can tell you though is that this is such a novel thing to own for anyone who is interested in fairy tales, the original and ultimate pockets of fantasy. Without fairytales and folk tales, we would not have the fantastical works of fiction that we are lucky to have access to today.

Beautiful book, gorgeous classic illustrations – reminiscent of N.C. Wyeth or Maxfield Parrish – but for some weird reason it's translated into a King James Bible sort of English full of 'thee, thou, thy, and thine' and old English forms of verbs, making it difficult and unpleasant to reach to a child. I don't know what the publisher was thinking. I can only give it a 3.

Language uses thee, thou, and thy. Illustrations are gorgeous. Heavy paper. Tales are few but well selected.