Jack and the Beanstalk

fairy tale · magic · adventure · classics

Ancient English tale. This famous story has been told for hundreds of years, starting way back as an English fairy tale with roots nobody can fully trace.

Many different versions. The story was published several times starting in 1734, and each person who told it made their own changes. Some versions have an ogre as the bad guy, while others have a giant.

Joseph Jacobs' version. In 1890, a writer named Joseph Jacobs retold the story in a way that felt more like how people had been telling it by mouth for years, without adding lessons or moralizing. His version is what most people read today.

Published and repopularized. The tale became really popular when Henry Cole published it in a book called The Home Treasury in 1845 under a made-up pen name, Felix Summerly.

The magic beans. Jack gets three magical beans that grow into a giant beanstalk reaching the clouds, which is the key to his whole adventure of meeting the giant and finding treasure.