Classicly

The Blue Fairy Book is a part of series by Andrew Lang, (1844 – 1912) a Scottish poet, novelist, and literary critic. Lang contributed to the fields of history, anthropology, and folklore scholarship, and wore a luxurious mustache like a push-broom. But it is for his fairy tales that he is remembered today. This volume is the first in his series of color-coded fairy books, and likely the best. It contains familiar tales such as Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and so on. That said, this collection was edited (not "written") by Andrew Lang. He didn't even collect them himself from the oral tradition.

His masterful feat, however, was to put the hundreds of folk stories into one large collection, packaging them up into a beautiful twelve-book series. Thus Lang's collection contains the original, non-Disney-fied versions of these famous tales, complete with hints of terror and gore. The language is somewhat "high," as it was compiled in the 19th Century, but don't be deterred. If you're reading to a youngster, you might replace some of the words with more familiar (and sometimes less racy) ones. Rejoice in such a collection of wonderful, unadulterated folk stories that everyone knows, but most haven't read first hand.