Divo divnoe Book

After reading a few Japanese fairy tales in Lang's fairy books and loving them, I was excited to read more. The stories in this book are poetical and mostly sad with a haunting quality about them. Aside from a few familiar fairy tale tropes, they are very different from most fairy tales I have read, which is why I love reading tales from a variety of cultures. Although most of the stories are sad, they are very beautiful and remind me of some of Andersen's work in which simple happily ever afters usually do not occur.

Favorites:
Wind in the Pine Tree
Flower of the Peony
The Cold Lady
The Fire Quest
Espousal of the Rat's Daughter
Spring Lover and Autumn Lover
Urashima (very different from Lang's version)
The Nurse
The Moon Maiden