Fifty Famous Stories Retold

About the book

Baldwin gathers short retellings of episodes associated with rulers, heroes, artists, and ordinary people, including Alfred and the cakes, Bruce and the spider, the sword of Damocles, and the blind men and the elephant. The collection is designed to introduce young readers to stories that recur as cultural references. Historical anecdote, legend, and exemplary fiction therefore appear together, and should not be treated as equally verified records of events. Clear situations and decisive actions make the pieces easy to remember and discuss. Their lessons concern perseverance, kindness, prudence, honesty, and the limits of appearances, but the narrative form gives each lesson a particular occasion. The volume also reveals how an educational tradition selected memorable incidents to turn a large and varied past into models of conduct.

• Exemplary stories
• Cultural memory
• Judgment and conduct

Why read it

For a compact introduction to widely repeated stories, with opportunities to distinguish moral illustration from historical evidence.

Historical and legendary stories retold for young readers · English text