In the mid-19th century, at a time when stories told by common folk were considered worthless superstitions, Thomas Frederick Crane began to gather and study Italian popular tales-fairy stories, nursery tales, and jests. Today his great collection, Italian Popular Tales, is even more important than it was a century ago.

An important reintroduction to this literature, this compilation of Thomas Crane's original translations of Italian folk stories includes new critical analysis.

For 19th-century folklorist Thomas Crane, the value of collecting, translating, and reproducing folktales lay in their "internationalism"—their capacity to reveal how the customs of a particular group, no matter how unique, are linked to many others.

In his classic collection, edited and updated by contemporary folklorist Jack Zipes, Crane traces the roots of Italian folktales to their origins, often in the Orient, then shows how they diffused in unpredictable and marvelous ways throughout Italy and over the centuries. A contemporary of the brothers Grimm, Crane offers a richer, more complex selection of oral and literary tales. Unlike the Grimms, he doesn't edit or modify the tales, which deal openly with surprisingly contemporary subjects: murder, adultery, incest, child abuse, and brutal vengeance.

• The first English translations of Italian folktales, now available after more than a century of neglect
• Critical analysis and notes by the original editor, 19th-century folklorist Thomas Crane