Little Two Eyes

by

Andrew Lang

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Tonight, we’ll be reading a fairy tale called "Little One Eye, Two Eyes and Three Eyes" from The Green Fairy Book, published in 1892 and published only by Andrew Lang, according to the original book. The Wikipedia page for the series of Langs’ Colored Fairy Books explains that Lang’s wife Nora Lang took over the editing of the many more published starting in the 1890s. There were 25 collections of stories total published between 1889 and 1913 by the couple.

These collections have been immensely influential; the Langs gave many of the tales their first appearance in English. British fairy tale collections were rare at the time; fairy tales were seen as brutal, escapist and unrealistic and thus a bad influence for young readers. Over a generation, Lang's books worked a revolution in this public perception.