The Nordau, Max Simon 1849-1923 creator Hart, H. A. McGowan, R. Safford, F. P. Safford, Mary J. (Mary Joanna) 1842-1916 text utu 2025 monographic en 1 online resource : multiple file formats "The dwarf's spectacles, and other fairy tales" by Max Simon Nordau is a collection of fairy tales written in the early 20th century. Framed as gentle bedtime fables for a child, the stories feature animals, toys, and humble folk whose misadventures teach clear moral lessons about kindness, humility, gratitude, and prudence. Expect vignettes about a sorrowing nightingale, a world‑weary fly, a proud doll, grateful sparrows, steadfast glow‑worms, and a country lad named Michel, all rendered with warm, simple charm. The opening of the collection presents a sequence of brief, moral tales: a nightingale loses her brood to a cat, whereupon the rose‑bush grows thorns to protect future nests—and the bird’s song turns forever wistful; Buzz‑Buzz the fly survives winter only to be rejected by heedless youths and drifts into a painless death, underscoring the cycle of life; a girl’s cherished white mouse fears her giant “monster” touch until a fairy lets the child hear the mice speak, teaching that creatures seek their own kind; Aennchen’s grand doll Kunigunde scorns humbler companions and meets a sordid end, a warning against pride; a little girl who feeds sparrows is thrice saved by them—from poisoned sweets, a runaway horse, and even gypsies who abduct her—after which her family honors the birds; six glow‑worms kidnapped to light an owl student’s studies are freed by the very youth, and the meadow revelers rejoice as the owl stops forcing scholarship; and, at the start of the title tale, the honest farmhand Michel is twice swindled on the road, helps a stranded dwarf across a river, receives spectacles that reveal human thoughts, and immediately uses them to avoid undercutting local laborers, who in turn feed and clothe him. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Why the rose-bush has thorns -- Last year's fly -- Like seeks like -- The proud doll -- The grateful sparrows -- The six little glow-worms -- The dwarf's spectacles -- The golden beetle that went on his travels -- The gold braids -- The cats that wouldn't catch mice -- The elf child -- The rich dog and the poor dog -- The little girl who travelled in the big ship -- The naughty brother and the clever sister -- The master -- The heart thread -- The secret empire -- The tame lion -- The flower prison -- Life and death. Release date is 2025-11-20 Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net/ for Project Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Originally published: New York: The Macmillan company, 1905 Fairy tales PZ New York: The Macmillan company, 1905 https://archive.org/details/dwarfsspectacles00nord/page/n7/mode/2up https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77279 https://archive.org/details/dwarfsspectacles00nord/page/n7/mode/2up https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77279 UtSlPG 260607 20260610134805.0 77279