Around the World: Latin American Folktales: Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions by John Bierhorst

Latin American Folktales: Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions (Pantheon Fairy Tale & Folklore Library) by John Bierhorst is one of the best collections of Latin American folktales and is still available in print and also in ebook format. This one also has a Register of Tale Types and Selected Motifs in its appendices which is a boon to those looking for similar tale types.

Book description from the publisher:

The wisdom and artistry of Latin America's storytellers preserve one of the world's richest folktale traditions--combining the lore of medieval Europe, the ancient Near East, and pre-Columbian America. Among the essential characters are the quiet man's wife who knew the Devil's secrets, the tree daughters who robbed their father's grave, and the wife in disguise who married her own husband--not to mention the Bear's son, the tricksters Fox and Monkey, the two compadres, and the classic rogue Pedro de Urdemalas.

Gathered from twenty countries, including the United States, the stories are here brought together in a core collection of one hundred tales arranged in the form of a velorio, or wake, the most frequent occasion for public storytelling. The tales are preceded by a selection of early Colonial legends foreshadowing the themes of Latino folklore and are followed by a carefully chosen group of modern Indian myths that replay the basic stories in a contrasting key. Riddles, chain riddles, and folk prayers, part and parcel of the velorio along with folktales, are introduced at appropriate junctures.

The collection is unprecedented in size and scope, and most of the tales have not been translated into English before. The result is the first panoramic anthology of Hispano-American folk narratives in any language--meant to be dipped into at random or read straight through from "Once and twice makes thrice upon a time" to "They were happy as the dickens and ate chickens."

About the Author

John Bierhorst's books on Latin American lore include The Mythology of South America and The Mythology of Mexico and Central America. A specialist in the language and literature of the Aztecs, he is the translator of the Cantares Mexicanos and the author of a Nahuatl-English dictionary. He currently serves as an editor of The Norton Anthology of World Literature an has received grants and fellowships from the Americas Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Table of Contents

. Preface. .
. Introduction. 3.
. Prologue: Early Colonial Legends. 19.
1. Montezuma / Nahua (Mexico). 22.
I. The Talking Stone. 22.
II. Montezuma's Wound. 25.
III. Eight Omens. 26.
IV. The Return of Quetzalcoatl. 28.
V. Is It You?. 32.
2. Legends of the Inca Kings / Quechua (Peru). 34.
I. Mayta Capac. 34.
II. The Storm. 36.
III. The Vanishing Bride. 38.
IV. A Messenger in Black. 40.
V. The Oracle at Huamachuco. 41.
3. Bringing Out the Holy Word / Mexico (Nahua). 42.
. Folktales: A Twentieth-Century Wake. 45.
4. In the City of Benjamin / Ecuador. 49.
5. Antuco's Luck / Chile. 51.
6. Don Dinero and Dona Fortuna / Dominican Republic. 56.
7. Mistress Lucia / Mexico. 57.
8. St. Peter's Wishes / Cuba. 63.
9. The Coyote Teodora / Honduras. 64.
10. Buried Alive / California. 65.
11. The Three Gowns / Puerto Rico. 67.
12. The Horse of Seven Colors / Venezuela. 72.
13. The Cow / New Mexico. 78.
14. Death and the Doctor / Dominican Republic. 81.
15. What the Owls Said / Mexico (Mazatec). 82.
16. Aunt Misery / Puerto Rico. 84.
17. Palm-tree Story / Colombia. 85.
18. Pedro de Urdemalas. 88.
I. The Letter Carrier from the Other World / Chile. 88.
II. The King's Pigs / Guatemala. 89.
III. The Sack / Chile. 89.
IV. Pedro Goes to Heaven / Argentina. 92.
19. A Voyage to Eternity / Bolivia. 94.
20. Mother and Daughter / Colombia. 98.
21. The Bird Sweet Magic / Costa Rica. 98.
22. Death Comes as a Rooster / Cuba. 103.
23. The Twelve Truths of the World / New Mexico. 104.
. Folk Prayers. 107.
24. The Mouse and the Dung Beetle / Colorado. 111.
25. The Canon and the King's False Friend / New Mexico. 113.
26. The Story That Became a Dream / Chile. 115.
27. St. Theresa and the Lord / Mexico. 118.
28. Rice from Ashes / Argentina. 120.
29. Juan Maria and Juana Maria / Guatemala. 124.
30. The Witch Wife / Colombia. 126.
31. O Wicked World / Argentina. 129.
32. The Three Sisters / Colombia. 130.
33. The Count and the Queen / Colorado. 134.
34. Crystal the Wise / Chile. 137.
35. Love Like Salt / Mexico. 141.
36. The Pongo's Dream / Peru (Quechua). 144.
37. The Fox and the Monkey / Bolivia (Aymara). 147.
38. The Miser's Jar / Guatemala (Kekchi Maya). 149.
39. Tup and the Ants / Mexico (Yucatec Maya). 152.
40. A Master and His Pupil / Guatemala. 155.
41. The Louse-Drum / Panama. 157.
42. The Three Dreams / Guatemala. 159.
43. The Clump of Basil / Puerto Rico. 161.
. Riddles. 164.
44. The Charcoal Peddler's Chicken / Puerto Rico. 173.
45. The Three Counsels / New Mexico. 174.
46. Seven Blind Queens / Chile. 176.
47. The Mad King / Florida. 181.
48. A Mother's Curse / Puerto Rico. 183.
49. The Hermit and the Drunkard / Ecuador. 184.
50. The Noblewoman's Daughter and the Charcoal Woman's Son / Cuba. 185.
51. The Enchanted Cow / Chile. 188.
52. Judas's Ear / New Mexico. 192.
53. Good Is Repaid with Evil / Venezuela. 195.
54. The Fisherman's Daughter / Colombia. 196.
55. In the Beginning / Mexico (Mazatec). 201.
56. How the First People Were Made / Mexico (Zapotec). 202.
57. Adam's Rib / Mexico (Popoluca). 203.
58. Adam and Eve and Their Children / New Mexico (Isleta). 203.
59. God's Letter to Noeh / Mexico (Zapotec). 204.
60. God Chooses Noah / Mexico (Mixe). 205.
61. The Flood / Mixe (Mexico). 207.
62. A Prophetic Dream / Mexico (Mazatec). 208.
63. The White Lily / Ecuador (Quichua). 209.
64. The Night in the Stable / Guatemala (Quiche Maya). 209.
65. When Morning Came. 210.
I. Why Did It Dawn? / Mexico (Nahua). 210.
II. That Was the Principal Day / Mexico (Tzotzil Maya). 211.
66. Three Kings / New Mexico (Isleta). 211.
67. The Christ Child as Trickster / Ecuador (Quichua). 212.
68. Christ Saved by the Firefly / Cakchiquel Maya (Guatemala). 213.
69. Christ Betrayed by Snails / Belize (Kekchi Maya). 214.
70. Christ Betrayed by the Magpie-jay / Mexico (Tzotzil Maya). 214.
71. The Blind Man at the Cross / Mexico (Mazatec). 214.
72. The Cricket, the Mole, and the Mouse / Mexico (Mazatec). 216.
73. As If with Wings / Mexico (Mazatec). 218.
74. Slowpoke Slaughtered Four / Puerto Rico. 219.
75. The Price of Heaven and the Rain of Caramels / Mexico. 221.
76. Pine Cone the Astrologer / Panama. 224.
77. The Dragon Slayer / Mexico. 225.
78. Johnny-boy / Nicaragua. 229.
79. The Rarest Thing / Guatemala. 230.
80. Prince Simpleheart / Costa Rica. 232.
81. The Flower of Lily-Lo / Mexico. 236.
82. My Garden Is Better Than Ever / Mexico (Popoluca). 238.
83. Juan Bobo and the Pig / Puerto Rico. 239.
84. The Parrot Prince / Chile. 240.
. Chain Riddles. 245.
85. A Dead Man Speaks / Texas. 251.
86. The Bear's Son / Honduras (Lenca). 252.
87. Charity / Argentina. 259.
88. Riches Without Working / Mexico (Nahua). 260.
89. Let Somebody Buy You Who Doesn't Know You / Guatemala. 262.
90. The Mouse King / Bolivia. 264.
91. Mariquita Grim and Mariquita Fair / Cuba. 266.
92. The Compadre's Dinner / Dominican Republic. 270.
93. The Hog / Colorado. 272.
94. Two Sisters / Puerto Rico. 272.
95. The Ghosts' Reales / Dominican Republic. 274.
96. The Bad Compadre / Guatemala (Cakchiquel Maya). 277.
97. Black Chickens / Mexico (Tepecano). 283.
98. Doublehead / El Salvador (Pipil). 286.
99. Littlebit / Chile. 288.
100. Rosalie / Mexico (Yucatec Maya). 293.
101. A Day Laborer Goes to Work / Mexico (Otomi). 297.
102. The Moth / Peru (Quechua). 303.
103. The Earth Ate Them / Argentina. 304.
. Epilogue: Twentieth-Century Myths. 307.
104. Why Tobacco Grows Close to Houses / Kogi (Colombia). 310.
105. The Buzzard Husband / Tzotzil Maya (Mexico). 310.
106. The Dead Wife / Miskito (Nicaragua). 314.
107. Romi Kumu Makes the World / Barasana (Colombia). 315.
108. She Was Thought and Memory / Kogi (Colombia). 316.
109. Was It Not an Illusion? / Witoto (Colombia). 317.
110. The Beginning Life of the Hummingbird / Mbya Guarani (Paraguay). 318.
111. Ibis Story / Yamana (Chile). 319.
112. The Condor Seeks a Wife / Quechua (Bolivia). 320.
113. The Priest's Son Becomes an Eagle / Zuni (New Mexico). 322.
114. The Revolt of the Utensils / Tacana (Bolivia). 325.
115. The Origin of Permanent Death / Shuar (Ecuador). 326.
. Notes. 329.
. Register of Tale Types and Selected Motifs. 363.
. Glossary of Native Cultures. 369.
. Bibliography. 373.
. Permissions Acknowledgments. 385

Grimm Legacies 2012: External Reports

Yes, I am behind on recapping the Grimm Legacies--I also felt that my many posts devoted to Dickens yesterday were more than enough for anyone's reading yesterday. So the recap will go on for a few weeks and one paper is spawning a brief series on SurLaLune--more about that later.

For now, I wanted to share a link to The Harvard Crimson's coverage of the event at Folk and Myth Talks Grimm By Melanie A. Guzman:

University of Minnesota professor Jack D. Zipes, who has authored numerous books on the Grimms’ tales, delivered the keynote address Friday on the pair’s legacy. “The Brothers Grimm have [had] a very unusual reception in Germany and a lot of their fairy tales have been sanitized and infantilized and really not been acknowledged as profound contributions to German culture,” Zipes said. “I showed, however, that there is another level in Germany where they take these stories extremely seriously and produce great illustrations based on their work.”

Folklore and Mythology Chair Maria Tatar delivered Saturday’s welcome address, entitled “Magic and Mythical: 200 Years of Brothers Grimm.”

“I wanted to show how [the tales’] magic has a mythical quality to it,” said Tatar, who teaches Folklore and Mythology 90i: “Fairy Tales and Fantasy Literature.” “They take us to the great existential mysteries, questions about death, reproduction, love, romance, power, all of these fundamental matters,” Tatar said.

And Gypsy over at Once Upon a Blog has archived the tweets from Twitter about the symposium on her blog, too. Thanks for taking the time to do that, Gypsy!

New Book: Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights by Marina Warner

 

Marina Warner has a new book out this year, Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights, which has already been released in the UK but won't be available in the US until March. But the press is hot on it in the UK, so I wanted to share today. If you are in the UK, you can have joy now and order the book right away. In the US, you can order the book from the UK now or wait until March. I'm waiting to spare my budget, of course, but I must admit I prefer the UK cover (the one on the left). What about you?

Book description (UK edition):

From the Inside Flap

Magic is not simply a matter of the occult arts, but a whole way of thinking, of dreaming the impossible. As such it has tremendous force in opening the mind to new realms of achievement: imagination precedes the fact. It used to be associated with wisdom, understanding the powers of nature, and with technical ingenuity that could let men do things they had never dreamed of before.

The supreme fiction of this magical thinking is The Arabian Nights, with its flying carpets, hidden treasure and sudden revelations. Translated into French and English in the early days of the Enlightenment, this became a best-seller among intellectuals, when it was still thought of in the Arab world as a mere collection of folk tales. For thinkers of the West the book's strangeness opened visions of transformation: dreams of flight,speaking objects, virtual money, and the power of the word to bring about change.Its tales create a poetic image of the impossible, a parable of secret knowledge and power. Above all they have the fascination of the strange - the belief that true knowledge lies elsewhere, in a mysterious realm of wonder.

As part of her exploration into the prophetic enchantments of the Nights Marina Warner retells some of the most wonderful and lesser known stories. She explores the figure of the dark magician or magus, from Solomon to the wicked uncle in Aladdin; the complex vitality of the jinn, or genies; animal metamorphoses and flying carpets.Her narrative reveals that magical thinking, as conveyed by these stories, governs many aspects of experience, even now.In this respect, the east and west have been in fruitful dialogue. Writers and artists in every medium have found themselves by adopting Oriental disguise. With startling originality and impeccable research, this ground-breaking book shows how magic, in the deepest sense, helped to create the modern world, and how profoundly it is still inscribed in the way we think today.

About the Author

Marina Warner spent her early years in Cairo, and was educated at a convent in Berkshire, and then in Brussels and London, before studying modern languages at Oxford. She is an internationally acclaimed cultural historian, critic, novelist and short story writer. From her early books on the Virgin Mary and Joan of Arc, to her bestselling studies of fairy tales and folk stories, From the Beast to the Blonde and No Go the Bogeyman, her work has explored different figures in myth and fairy tale and the art and literature they have inspired. She lectures widely in Europe, the United States and the Middle East, and is currently Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex. She was appointed CBE in 2008.

And from Stranger Magic by Marina Warner: review: Sameer Rahim revels in 1,001 tales that last a lifetime, reading Marina Warner's Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights, the first few paragraphs to whet your interest:

The earliest translations of The Arabian Nights appeared around the same time as the Enlightenment philosopher David Hume began debunking Biblical miracles from the “ignorant and barbarous nations” of the East. As the West became more rationalist, Nights-fever caught on among countless artists for whom the tales were an outlet for all sorts of fantasies, both magical and sexual.

Mozart was given a copy by his Italian landlady and picked up themes for his oriental opera The Abduction from the Seraglio; Coleridge read the tales with a “strange mixture of obscure dread and intense desire”, the same feelings he evokes in “Kubla Khan”; and Dickens’s homage to the Nights can be found in A Christmas Carol, when Scrooge tries to trap the Ghost of Christmas Past with a candle extinguisher, like the Fisherman coaxing the Genie back into his magic lamp.

Marina Warner’s Stranger Magic ranges widely, and somewhat wildly, from the earliest Western interpretations to Hollywood films such as The Thief of Baghdad. She takes 15 of her favourite tales and spins a knowledgeable but rather haphazard cultural history.

Warner does not read Arabic and shows little interest in the linguistic texture of the tales – how, for example, any attempt to imitate the rhymed, repetitive prose leads to monstrosities like Richard Burton’s Victorian version, but how turning it into neat English does not reflect its oral origins. She also makes a point of denying their Arab-ness: The Nights, she writes, “has no known author or named authors, no settled shape or length, no fixed table of contents, no definite birthplace or linguistic origin”. But while the stories are certainly universal, they are also firmly rooted in the medieval Islamic world.

Bargain Ebooks: Gregory Maguire Titles

Here are a few bargain ebooks by Gregory Maguire. I wish they were the fairy tale ones, but I know some readers here love Wicked with Bonus Material: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years), which is $1.99 for a limited time, down from $9.99

Son of a Witch (The Wicked Years) is $3.99, down from $7.99, also for a limited time, I imagine.

What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy is $1.99. This one fluctuates to lower prices while the others are usually higher, but I thought I would include it while I was here...

Happy Thanksiving with an Appropriate Bargain Book

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all of those celebrating in the US. The holiday season is officially upon us and I expect it to zoom by very quickly.

I ordered The Gift of Thanks: The Roots and Rituals of Gratitude by Margaret Visser earlier this week and it is down to an even lower price today at $1.58 for the ebook. For that matter, the hardcover it $1.76. Apparently not enough people like to read about the history of expressing gratitude! Or this was warranted as a great doorbuster.

The book discusses the rituals of gratitude and is rather interesting although I've only had the chance to browse through it so far and peruse the introduction which emphasizes the author's premise that gifts and gratitude are freely given. I was reminded of the great Big Bang Theory Christmas episode, "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis," in which Sheldon exclaims, "Oh, Penny. I know you think you are being generous, but the foundation of gift giving is reciprocity. You haven't given me a gift. You've given me an obligation." With the holidays in process now, this theory certainly will be considered more than once as gifts are given and received. (And, yes, that episode is one of my favorite Christmas episodes of a tv series ever. Look, no rehashing of It's a Wonderful Life or Christmas Carol, either!)

So anyway, the book is definitely worth the price and as I looked through it, I realized it may be of interest to readers here, too.

Book description from the publisher:

An inquiry into what we mean when we say "thank you." Visser examines all aspects of gratitude ranging from cultural histories to modern customs including mythology, folklore and fiction.

A review from Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. Like a modern Ruth Benedict immersed in classical literature, Visser (Much Depends on Dinner) examines what it really means, in the course of human interaction, to be thankful. Her kindly book turns on itself in an exhaustive but continually engrossing fashion. Beginning with the assumption that [g]ratitude must be freely given; otherwise, it might be a polite show, but it is not gratitude, Visser asks many questions of cultures East and West and provides a plethora of answers. The obscured and deeper meaning of giving thanks is probed through such divergent cultural markers as the work of Georg Simmel and Dickens; the Bible and Proust; Japanese sumimasen, which is both a thanking and an apologizing, and C.C. Baxter in Bill Wilder's The Apartment; Plato's Laws and Seneca's massive treatise on gift giving and the slipperiness of saying you're welcome in today's U.K. What is tipping all about? What is the etymological relationship between votive, vow, favors, grace and gratitude? What might the gestures of courtesy—the curtsy for example—be? Overall, this is a delightful and graceful gift of a book, for which any fortunate recipient will be thankful.

The Annotated Fairy Tale Books from Maria Tatar

The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales and the other two books in the series from Maria Tatar are another part of this month's library essentials. These are especially beneficial for the more casual but still enthusiastic fairy tale armchair scholar, filled with annotated versions of the tales and illustrations and other materials. It's rather like the SurLaLune site in book format and through a somewhat different perspective.

Book description from the publisher:

The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales is a remarkable treasure trove, a work that celebrates the best-loved tales of childhood and presents them through the vision of Maria Tatar, a leading authority in the field of folklore and children's literature. Into the woods with Little Red Riding Hood, up the beanstalk with Jack, and down through the depths of the ocean with the Little Mermaid, this volume takes us through many of the familiar paths of our folkloric heritage. Gathering together twenty-five of our most cherished fairy tales, including enduring classics like "Beauty and the Beast," "Jack and the Beanstalk," " ," and "Bluebead," Tatar expertly guides readers through the stories, exploring their historical origins, their cultural complexities, and their psychological effects. Offering new translations of the non-English stories by the likes of Hans Christian Andersen, Brothers Grimm, or Charles Perrault, Tatar captures the rhythms of oral storytelling and, with an extraordinary collection of over 300 often rare, mostly four-color paintings and drawings by celebrated illustrators such as Gustave Doré, George Cruikshank, and Maxfield Parrish, she expands our literary and visual sensibilities. As Tatar shows, few of us are aware of how profoundly fairy tales have influenced our culture. Disseminated across a wide variety of historical and contemporary media ranging from opera and drama to cinema and advertising, they constitute a vital part of our storytelling capital. What has kept them alive over the centuries is exactly what keeps life pulsing with vitality and variety: anxieties, fears, desires, romance, passion, and love. Up close and personal, fairy tales tell us about the quest for romance and riches, for power and privilege, and, most importantly, they show us a way out of the woods back to the safety and security of home. Challenging the notion that fairy tales should be read for their moral values and used to make good citizens of little children, Tatar demonstrates throughout how fairy tales can be seen as models for navigating reality, helping children to develop the wit and courage needed to survive in a world ruled by adults. This volume seeks to reclaim this powerful cultural legacy, presenting the stories that we all think we know while at the same time providing the historical contexts that unlock the mysteries of the tales. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales is a volume that will rank as one of the finest fairy tale collections in many decades, a provocative and original work to be treasured by students, parents, and children. Over 300 often rare, mostly four-color paintings and drawings by celebrated illustrators.

The Annotated Brothers Grimm (The Annotated Books) description from the publisher:

The Annotated Brothers Grimm celebrates the richness and dramatic power of the legendary fables in the most spectacular and unusual Grimm volume in decades. Containing forty stories in new translations by Maria Tatar—including "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Rapunzel"—the book also features 150 illustrations, many of them in color, by legendary painters such as George Cruikshank and Arthur Rackham; hundreds of annotations that explore the historical origins, cultural complexities, and psychological effects of these tales; and a biographical essay on the lives of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Perhaps most noteworthy is Tatar's decision to include tales that were previously excised, including a few bawdy stories and others that were removed after the Grimms learned that parents were reading the book to their children—stories about cannibalism in times of famine and stories in which children die at the end. Enchanting and magical, The Annotated Brothers Grimm will cast its spell on children and adults alike for decades to come. 75 color and 75 black-and-white illustrations.

The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen (The Annotated Books) description from the publisher:

In her most ambitious annotated work to date, Maria Tatar celebrates the stories told by Denmark's "perfect wizard" and re-envisions Hans Christian Andersen as a writer who casts his spell on both children and adults. Andersen's most beloved tales, such as "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Ugly Duckling," and "The Little Mermaid," are now joined by "The Shadow" and "Story of a Mother," mature stories that reveal his literary range and depth. Tatar captures the tales' unrivaled dramatic and visual power, showing exactly how Andersen became one of the world's ten most translated authors, along with Shakespeare, Dickens, and Marx. Lushly illustrated with more than one hundred fifty rare images, many in full color, by artists such as Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen will captivate readers with annotations that explore the rich social and cultural dimensions of the nineteenth century and construct a compelling portrait of a writer whose stories still fascinate us today.

Selkies: Nonfiction

  

And if selkies fascinate you, here are some of the best nonfiction books for your consideration:

The People of the Sea: A Journey in Search of the Seal Legend by David Thomson

Book description:

A magical book about an ancient legend-that the seal was once human, and can sometimes resume human form--and about the Celtic fishing families who still tell it, sing it, believe it.

Raised among Scottish fishermen and storytellers, David Thomson was obsessed from childhood by the Celtic seal legend, the body of tales and songs about the "selchie," or gray Atlantic seal. In the early 1950's he took a journey to seek the legend out, in the Hebrides, on the east coast of Scotland, on the west coast of Ireland-places where magic co-exists with reality and pre-Christian traditions and beliefs somehow endure.

He gives us here the fruits of his search as he found it, and tells us something of the men, women, and children from whom he heard the stories. He also tells of his own encounters with seals, and the dreamlike hold that these have had on him. The result is, in the words of his friend Seamus Heaney, a poetic achievement-a work of "intuitive understanding, perfect grace, and perfect pitch."

About the Author

David Thomson (1914-1988) was a writer and producer of radio documentaries for the BBC and the author of thirteen books, among them the prize-winning memoirs Woodbrook and Nairn in Darkness and Light.

Tales of the Seal People: Scottish Folk Tales (International Folk Tale Series)by Duncan Williamson and Chad McCail

Book description:

A collection of Scottish folk tales featuring silkies, the seal people who can take human shape.

Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness by Carole G. Silver

Book description:

Teeming with creatures, both real and imagined, this encyclopedic study in cultural history illuminates the hidden web of connections between the Victorian fascination with fairies and their lore and the dominant preoccupations of Victorian culture at large. Carole Silver here draws on sources ranging from the anthropological, folkloric, and occult to the legal, historical, and medical. She is the first to anatomize a world peopled by strange beings who have infiltrated both the literary and visual masterpieces and the minor works of the writers and painters of that era.

Examining the period of 1798 to 1923, Strange and Secret Peoples focuses not only on such popular literary figures as Charles Dickens and William Butler Yeats, but on writers as diverse as Thomas Carlyle, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Charlotte Mew; on artists as varied as mad Richard Dadd, Aubrey Beardsley, and Sir Joseph Noel Paton; and on artifacts ranging from fossil skulls to photographs and vases. Silver demonstrates how beautiful and monstrous creatures--fairies and swan maidens, goblins and dwarfs, cretins and changelings, elementals and pygmies--simultaneously peopled the Victorian imagination and inhabited nineteenth-century science and belief. Her book reveals the astonishing complexity and fertility of the Victorian consciousness: its modernity and antiquity, its desire to naturalize the supernatural, its pervasive eroticism fused with sexual anxiety, and its drive for racial and imperial dominion.

Favorite Fairy Tales of People Past: Totally Fun Silliness

So when I gushed in my previous entry about the Fairytale Reflections series at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, I started daydreaming about Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte writing entries as well as some other authors.  Anyone want to play the game with me?

What would the favorite fairy tales of favorite deceased authors be? 

Charlotte Bronte is rather easy.  Jane Eyre and her other works lead me to think Beauty and the Beast with Bluebeard. That one's really too easy.

Would Jane Austen pick Beauty and the Beast, too? She certainly liked Cinderella tropes but would she claim it as a favorite? She predates The Ugly Duckling, but she would probably have embraced that one, too.

And speaking of Bluebeard, it had a special influence with L. M. Montgomery.  She references it much more frequently than just in her The Blue Castle which is certainly partially inspired by it. I learned about Bluebeard from Montgomery actually.  She referenced it so often that I had to learn just what the tale was when I was an adolescent reading anything by Montgomery I could get my hands on.

And, by the way, we already know somewhat that Dickens loved Little Red Riding Hood.  He once wrote: "Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood I should have known perfect bliss."

Several years ago I acquired a copy of Favorite Fairy Tales: The Childhood Choice of Representative Men and Women illustrated by Peter Newell to share the illustrations on SurLaLune. I was thrilled to find a list of important figures from that time who had chosen some of their favorite fairy tales. Mark Twain put his name on Aladdin and Ali Baba. Howard Pyle chose Little Snowdrop (Snow White). Julia Ward Howe chose Beauty and the Beast. Henry James chose Hop o' My Thumb. Jane Addams chose The Ugly Duckling. Grover Cleveland chose Cinderella. You can see the entire list in the table of contents provided at Project Gutenberg where the book has been digitized much more recently.

Many of the people are not as well known today, but their choices are interesting. It's always interesting how the gender lines are drawn in the choices, too.  Arabian Nights and Jack and the Beanstalk tends to be a male choice although the men are more willing to choose female heroines, too.  Apparently, they listened and cared about those stories decades ago despite socialization that makes us think they can't or won't.  (Hollywood I'm looking at you!)  Of course, these days Scherazade gets more press so women pick her story from Arabian Nights pretty frequently too.

So play the game and pick an author and speculate over his/her favorite fairy tale.  I've already found myself devoting too much time to the exercise.

Sort of Off Topic: Kindles and Such

The blogosphere is alive with rumors that Oprah will once again choose the Kindle as one of her favorite things, putting a run on them later today and tomorrow, most likely causing a sell-out.  So if you were considering one for the holidays, today would be a good time to choose one to insure you have it by Christmas. Supposedly her book club will also be A Tale of Two Cities which I have read enough times in my life, thank you very much.  That English degree of mine insured that.  But I have it along with all of Dickens on my own Kindle.  After two years, my Kindle library almost rivals my library of dead tree books which has been shrinking a little with the Kindle's convenience.

 

Kindle 3G Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 3G Works Globally, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology

Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology

Besides the ease of reading with it, many authors are starting to rerelease old titles for the ebook reader only.  I'm hoping this trend takes off for the new year.  And I wish the estates of some older authors would pick up on this trend, too, such as Eleanor Farjeon and other authors who played with fairy tales.

Anyway, here is one of the titles:

The Rapunzel Trap by Kathy Lynn Emerson