Legend of the White Serpent: Retold from the Chinese

Here is a bewitching old Chinese legend that has well deserved its long life in the East.

Like all famous fairy tales, it has been retold again and again under various names, even taking the form of a popular Chinese opera and, of several films and a full-length color cartoon.

But it has never been retold more charmingly than here.Accompanied by more than 40 brilliant paintings in the typical Chinese manner by a gifted Hong Kong artist, this story of rich imagination relates the adventures of a little white snake and the schoolboy who has her for a pet.

After he sets her free, she is transformed by the ancient gods of China into a beautiful young woman whose name becomes White Modest Beauty.

This eventful transformation involves her and her young master in a series of astonishing adventures and strange difficulties before they at last find happiness by overcoming even the unbending decree of the gods.Designed primarily for children, this book is yet "a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney-corner," for its charm is one that appeals to young and old alike.