Customer Reviews

French Folktales (Pantheon Fairy Tale & Folklore Library)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These are not the refined, bloodless, literary fairy tales of the French salons. Robust, emotional, often silly, readers will find that these stories have enormous entertainment value. Persons familiar with a variety of European fairy tale traditions will recognize stories that jumped the borders and went native in rural France, often having made the journey from oral folktale to print matter and back again. The changes along the way are interesting to note. The translation is brisk and easy to read, very natural in tone. I loved this book so much that when I read the library's copy, I had to run out and find a copy for myself. Too bad Pantheon is having trouble keeping their wonderful books in print.

I borrowed this book from the library during the Fall 2008 semester to include in a final project about the folklore of France and I fell in love with the stories in this book; had to buy it. I learned in the introduction that Pourrat would rewrite his tales to try and capture the feeling of how they were told. Reading his versions of tales is not just entertaining, but they teach you about Pourrat himself. It's very interesting.

They are of course great to look at from a studious perspective as well. In my presentation I stressed that folktales reflect the time during which they're told. Pourrat was collecting and rewriting his tales during the 20th century, which is a different perspective than most of the folk tales one will find. It is quite odd to compare with the collected folklore of the 19th and 18th centuries and see what has changed, and what has stayed the same.

I had been looking for this book for a long time to give as a gift. It arrived in good shape. How wonderful I was able to find it. Great read

I'm not a literary scholar, but I found this collection to be repetitive. Some of the stories made no sense at all, and perhaps it's expected that folktales would lose something in the translation, but if they make no sense why include them? I liked the art, but it's not worth the price. If I were to purchase this book knowing what I know, I'd buy a cheap used copy or, even better, just borrow it from the library.

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