Skazki: Russian Fairy Tales

An awesome collection of seven Russian fairy tales illustrated by Bilibin. All the stories are strange, vivid, and compelling, and include two of my favorite: Ivan, The Grey Wolf, and the Firebird, and Vasilisa the Beautiful. The turn-of-the-century illustrations by Bilibin are gorgeous. Probably

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my favorite find at the used bookstore here.

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This is a collection Russian Fairy Tales. There is love, death, and betrayal, as with all good tales.

The narrative is detailed, vivid, often emotional, and evocative.

Characters are sometimes emotional, caring, and humorous.

Overall, a fun read.

These tales are very similar in nature to the Grimm Fairy Tales. Since they were modeled after the Grimm Fairy Tales, I guess this can be expected. Really entertaining if you're into dark stories. There is a stronger streak of feminism than the Grimm fairy tales with more autonomy and independence

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for women in stories such as The Death of Koschei the Deathless.

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This book contains five Russian fairy tales and features a couple of quintessential characters: the Baby Yaga, living in her hut on hens' legs, and the firebird. While there are echoes to the collected tales by the brothers Grimm, I don't believe that these stories were modelled after them, as one

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reviewer remarked; I think that some of these tales represent archetypal stories that have their roots in the deep past, when they were shared around campfires and travelled vast distances, and then evolved into the recognisable tales we find today, albeit with local and regional variations.

Three of the stories ('Vasilisa the Beautiful', 'The Feather of Finist the Falcon' and 'The Frog-Tsarevna') offer a commendable variation to most fairy tales: they have as their main character a woman, whereas the man is very much on the sidelines and has to be rescued or assisted, if he appears at all. The latter two tales made a very deep impression on me when I was growing up, and I still remembered a couple of plot points more than thirty years later!

As some reviewers have already mentioned, the illustrations by Ivan Bilibin are stunning: intricate, highly detailed, atmospheric and very colourful, they enhance the stories no end and provide a flavour of Russian folklore and culture.

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