This book contains the following stories:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
A queen sat sewing and pricked her finger. A spot of blood fell on her white cloth and she sighed. 'How I wish I could have a daughter with cheeks as red as blood, hair as black as ivory and skin as white as snow'. The queen's wish was granted and soon she gave birth to a beautiful daughter who she named Snow White. But then the queen died and the king remarried. The new queen was very vain and every day she would ask her mirror 'Mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all', to which the mirror would reply, 'You are the fairest o queen'. Time passed and the queen got older and her face dropped, and Snow White grew into a beautiful woman. The day came when the mirror in all honesty could not say that the queen was the most beautiful of them all, but had to reply 'O queen lovely as you are, Snow White is now fairer'. The queen was very cross and ordered a huntsman to take Snow White into the forest and kill her, bringing back her heart as proof of the deed. The huntsman could not bear to kill Snow White so he left her alive in the forest and took back the heart of an animal instead. But the mirror revealed that Snow White was still alive and living as a housemaid with seven dwarfs. The Queen set out to kill Snow White herself. When the girl ate the poisoned apple she dropped down as if dead and the Queen was satisfied. The dwarfs wept over the glass coffin. A prince was so taken with Snow White's beauty that he lifted her from the coffin, dislodging the apple and so brought her magically back to life. The two were married, and the Queen superceded.
Beauty and the Beast
The Beast lives alone in his castle, enchanted by a wicked fairy and waiting for true love to break the spell. Could Beauty be the one to see through his ugly exterior? Or is he destined to remain a beast forever?
