Recent Release: The Midnight Washerwoman and Other Tales of Lower Brittany by Francois-Marie Luzel

 

The Midnight Washerwoman and Other Tales of Lower Brittany by Francois-Marie Luzel (Author), Michael Wilson (Translator) is part of the Oddly Modern Fairy Tales series--volume 28! 

Edited by Jack Zipes, the series is an important contribution to folklore studies by Princeton University Press:

Oddly Modern Fairy Tales is a series dedicated to publishing unusual literary fairy tales produced mainly during the first half of the twentieth century. International in scope, the series includes new translations, surprising and unexpected tales by well-known writers and artists, and uncanny stories by gifted yet neglected authors. Postmodern before their time, the tales in Oddly Modern Fairy Tales transformed the genre and still strike a chord.

Book description from the publisher:

Twenty-nine Breton tales, as told over a series of long winter nights, featuring an ingenious miller, a Jerusalem-bound ant, a mad dash at midnight, and more

In the late nineteenth century, the folklorist François-Marie Luzel spent countless winter evenings listening to stories told by his neighbors, local Breton farmers and villagers. At these social gatherings, known as veillées, Luzel recorded the tales in unusual detail, capturing a storytelling tradition that is now almost forgotten. The Midnight Washerwoman and Other Tales of Lower Brittany collects twenty-nine stories gathered by Luzel, many translated into English for the first time. The tales are presented in a series of five imaginary veillées, giving readers a unique opportunity to listen in on a long-ago winter’s night of storytelling.

Some of the stories mix the apparently supernatural with the everyday—as in the title tale, when a mysteriously nocturnal washerwoman causes three handsome lads to flee so quickly they lose their clogs in the process. Others invite listeners to root for the underdog, as when a simple miller outwits a powerful seigneur. Another tale must have been greeted with raucous laughter as it recounts an ascending ladder of obstacles—from a mouse to a cat to a man to God (or the Devil) himself—confronted by a traveling ant. Michael Wilson, the volume’s editor and translator, provides a substantive introduction that discusses Luzel’s work and the significance of Breton storytelling. 

In other words, this addition to the Oddly Modern library offers up some tales that were gathered by Luzel and are not original fiction creations like some of the other collections in the series. While my own tastes are pretty democratic in folklore studies, I lean towards the collected tales--and we won't get into discussions of oral vs recorded and edited here today. Luzel has long been on my own list for further study so I am thrilled that this title has been translated and with many tales offered in English for the first time.

The book is academically sound with great endnotes and a bibilography. The end notes include ATU classifications for the tales when applicable. No Cinderellas here, but there are a couple of ATU 425: The Search for the Lost Husband (Cupid and Psyche) which is related to Beauty and the Beast. (Beauty and the Beast is ATU-425C, after all.) There's some other secondary favorites like ATU 403: The Black and White Bride and ATU 1640: The Brave Little Tailor and several others.

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for evaluation purposes.

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