Indian Fairy Tales

Joseph Jacobs drew on the Jatakas, the Panchatantra, the Kathasaritsagara, and other ancient sources to gather twenty-nine folk tales from the Indian tradition. Talking animals, clever princes, demons, and moral fables sit side by side, many of them ancestors of stories that later traveled west into Aesop and the collections of the Brothers Grimm. Jacobs, a serious folklorist, arranged the book for young readers while adding notes on where each tale came from and how it spread across cultures. John D. Batten’s illustrations accompanied the original 1892 edition. The result is a friendly gateway into one of the world’s oldest storytelling traditions, suitable for reading aloud or alone. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.