PREFACE.
ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

English fairy tales amuse
children in the whole world.

Tales
are folklore stories, made up by peo­ple long time ago. They contain fantastic
he­roes, but usually depict the characters and the situations of everyday
people's life. These sto­ries were told first in oral form from genera­tion to
generation. They were collected and written down much later.

In
this book we offer to the young readers four well-known English legends, which
are united by one hero — Jack the Giant Killer.

The
incidents of each tale show him as a brave, clever, kind and generous young
man. He is a farmer's son and he always helps the com­mon people. Jack is
quick-witted and fearless. He could win the selfish, cruel and strong giants.
He always knows what to say and what to do.

Jack
embodies in himself the best features of a simple man. He is a very popular
folk char­acter. Even now he arises our sympathy due to his kind heart,
cleverness and bravery.