Reading order
Folktales reading order
1
3- 7.77.7 / 10199 ratings
- Score
- 3 volumes
- Volumes
- 1978–2000
- Published
- about 18 h
- Reading time
- Completed
- Status
- Fantasy#191
- Genre
Quick answer
Publication order
3 volumes1978–2000Completed
- Robin McKinley’s retellings of fairy tales, each a standalone novel told with depth and humour.
- Beauty, her 1978 debut, retells Beauty and the Beast and is the most read; she returned to the same tale twenty years later with the very different Rose Daughter.
- Spindle’s End, a funny, earthy Sleeping Beauty in which the princess is raised in hiding, rates highest.
- Read in any order.
A plan for the whole series
3 volumes, 963 pages, about 18 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 3 weeks.
Share of volume 1’s readers who reach the last volume. Chance of reaching the last volume: medium
Stages
This series fits in one stage. You finish around November 22, 2026.
- Stage 118 habout 3 weeksby November 22, 2026
- 1. Beauty
- 2. Rose Daughter
- 3. Spindle's End
- The end of the series
We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.
How this plan is calculated
The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →
Every volume in order
Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 29, 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which Folktales book is the best?
By reader score, Spindle's End (7.8/10). The lowest-rated is Beauty (7.6/10).
Which Folktales book is the longest?
“Spindle's End” is the longest at 422 pages; the shortest is “Beauty” with 247 pages.