
From “Princess Belle Étoile” (PZ6 1874 C736)
Happy Friday! Just in time for weekend, we have some new fairy tales to share.
Even though the Rare Books and Special Collections reading room is currently closed, we’re excited to share through our blog the delightful results of a student assignment undertaken during the winter 2020 term for the English course “The Victorian Fairy Tale: Text and Image.”
For this assignment, Professor Pamela Dalziel asked her students to “choose five illustrated Victorian fairy tales available in Rare Books and Special Collections that you would like to have in your personal collection.” Some of Professor Dalziel’s students were kind enough to share their final selections with not only the team at RBSC, but also with the public through our blog.

From “The Selfish Giant” (PR10.R4 W5 1888 H3)
So far we have thirteen assignments that students have been willing to share, some anonymously and some with author credit. I’ll post links to the final assignments a few at a time over the coming weeks. Be sure to read all of the fairy tale assignments kindly shared by Professor Dalziel’s students.
We hope you enjoy these fairy tale selections and will perhaps be inspired to stop by RBSC to see some of the books for yourself once the RBSC reading room has reopened.
Five fairy tale selections, part IV:
- Beauties and beasts, jungles, ice maidens, dancing princesses, and heroic princesses
- Cinderella, cursed ladies, selfish giants, sorrowful princes, and great Marley’s ghost!