The two-volume set includes the best texts of fairy-tale collections, both for the richness of their plot lines and for compositional coherence, as well as for the preservation of the poetic form—texts that have become classics (from the collections of Afanasyev, Azadovsky, Zelenin, Khudyakov, Onchukov, Korynukhova, Korguev, Korolkova, Sadovnikov, Sokolov, and others).
All the presented texts are carefully verified against the original sources. Literary-origin fairy tales, as well as texts that have been processed in a literary way, are not published in this edition.
Fairy tales reflect the generalized poetic and philosophical worldview of the people—its ideas of good and evil, love and hatred, wealth and poverty. These tales can be called an encyclopedia of folk morality. And in the early magical fairy tales connected at the roots with ancient myths, and in later novella-like (everyday) tales and tales about animals—these notions are embodied in images of positive heroes who invariably emerge as winners in the struggle against bearers of evil and injustice.
The first volume of the two-volume set contains magical fairy tales.
The second volume—novella-like, everyday fairy tales and tales about animals.