Showing results by author "Maurice Baring" in All Categories

A fascinating collection of some of the great - but less well known - fairy tales of all time.

'The Wise Princess' is a take on the traditional Russian fairy tale of the frog princess. Three princes are instructed by their father, the king, to fire their arrows at random and marry whichever maidens they land near to. The youngest son's arrow lands in a marsh next to a frog. But the frog turns out to be a wise princess in disguise - and when the prince sees the princess in her true form he falls in love with her. One night when the princess is not wearing her frog skin, the princes takes it and burns it.

The Silver Mountain is a fairy story about a king who sends his three sons on a quest. They are to search for the silver mountain. Whichever one of them finds it will inherit the kingdom. But they soon discover that everyone out in the world seems to be looking for the silver mountain, and nobody knows where it is.

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, children's writer, novelist, travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War. The Blue Rose is a fairy tale about a Chinese princess who is as clever as she is beautiful. When her father sets out to find her a husband, she determines to make her own choice. The Emperor declares that whoever can find and bring his daughter a blue rose shall wed her. But the wise princess is able to debunk all the blue roses proffered and at the same time works out a way to favour her own lover.

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, children's writer, travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War. The Minstrel is a classic fairy tale about a childless couple who are granted a wish by a fairy. They wish for a daughter. The fairy gives them a heart-shaped copper coin to hang over their hearth, telling them that they must never give it away, for if they do, they will be giving away their daughter. One day, years later, when the beautiful child is home alone, a minstrel comes by and sings a lovely, captivating song. The girl gives the minstrel the heart-shaped copper coin from above the hearth...and her fate is sealed....

Venus is a peculiar story about a reclusive and eccentric civil servant who becomes increasingly susceptible to strange fits where he seems to be transported to another planet where giant mushrooms grow and myriads of strange caterpillars and exotic butterflies abound. Over time the visions become stranger and more and more terrifying.

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English travel writer, novelist and war correspondent during World War I. The Island is a supernatural horror story about two explorers who discover an uncharted volcanic island off the coast of southern Spain. As they begin to explore, they have a strong feeling that they are not alone....

Maurice Baring (1874-1945) was an English short story writer, novelist, and travel writer and war correspondent during the First World War. The Shadow of a Midnight is a ghost story with a twist. Two students on a walking tour in Germany stay in an interesting old inn which had formerly been a convent. One of them has a strange dream, which turns out perhaps not to have been a dream after all....