Once on a Time

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Once on a Time is a fairy tale novel by English writer A. A. Milne. The first edition was published in 1917 with illustrations by H. M. Brock. The 1922 American edition was illustrated by Charles Robinson, with a colour-plate frontispiece and black-and-white line drawings, and included a preface by the author. Milne's preface begins "This is an odd book". Ostensibly a typical fairytale, it tells the story of the war between the kingdoms of Euralia and Barodia and the political shenanigans which take place in Euralia in the king's absence, all supposedly rewritten by Milne from the writings of the fictional historian "Roger Scurvilegs". Milne created the story to contain believable, three-dimensional characters, rather than the stereotypes which will satisfy children. Hence the book introduces us to a princess who is far from helpless; a prince who, whilst handsome, is also pompous and vain; an enchantment which is almost entirely humorous; a villain who is not entirely villainous and receives no real comeuppance; a good king who is not always good; an evil king who is not always evil, and so on. The book was written by Milne in 1915, partly for the amusement of his wife.