This richly illustrated collection includes five popular Russian folk tales: Vasilisa the Beautiful; Maria Morevna; The Feather of Finist the Falcon; The Frog-Tsarevna; Tsarevich Ivan, the Firebird and the Grey Wolf. The illustrations featured in this edition were created in the early 20th century by Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin, a famous Russian illustrator and stage designer, who was inspired by Slavic folklore throughout his career. He was a prominent figure in the artistic movement Mir Iskusstva and contributed to the Ballets Russes. The tales were recorded by the renowned folklorist Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev (1826-1871), who collected and published more than 600 Russian folk tales in the middle 19th century.

Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, following the example of the Brothers Grimm in Germany, Alexander Afanasyev embarked on the ambitious task of sifting through the huge repository of tales from Russian folklore and selecting the very best from written and oral sources. The result, an eight-volume collection comprising around 600 stories, is one of the most influential and enduringly popular books in Russian literature. This large selection from Afanasyev's work, presented in a new translation by Stephen Pimenoff, will give English readers the opportunity to discover one of the founding texts of the European folkloristic tradition. Displaying a vast array of unforgettable characters, such as the Baba-Yaga, Ivan the Fool, Vasilisa the Fair and the Firebird, these tales - by turns adventurous, comical and downright madcap - will enchant readers for their raw beauty and constant ability to surprise and excite.