Joseph Jacobs's English Fairy Tales

A selection of forty-two of Joseph Jacobs’s children’s classics from English Fairy Tales and More English Fairy Tales are now available together in this beautiful collectible edition.

Most children today know the stories of Jack and the beanstalk, the three bears, the three little pigs, and Tom Thumb. But without Joseph Jacobs, these stories might have been lost to history. Inspired by the works of the brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, Jacobs collected English folktales, which he published in two volumes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Read some of his best stories of adventure and magic in this collection, including:
“Jack and the Beanstalk”
“The Three Bears”
“The Three Little Pigs”
“Tom Thumb”
“The Pied Piper”
And more!

Joseph Jacobs (1854–1916) was an Australian-born writer who is best remembered for his collections of folklore. Jacobs spent much of his life studying literature, and he was an advocate against antisemitism. Inspired by Charles Perrault, the Grimm brothers, and the romantic nationalism movement, he collected English fairy tales so that English children could read stories from their own heritage. Additionally, he published collections of Celtic and Indian tales.