Customer Reviews

Gullah Folktales from the Georgia Coast

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This is a collection of dozens of folktales culled from the Gullah tradition. They are mostly from the mid to later part of the 19th century from the coastal lowlands area of Georgia. The hundred + year-old tales are transcribed in a dialect, but they shouldn't be considered authentic renditions of the Gullah creolized language. The book has a great introduction that explains how Jones came to compile the work and write other books on a range of subjects. The dialect of the stories take a while to understand, but the glossary at the end of the book helps explain unfamiliar words. The stories are really good ones, and it is great to see this important book in print.

A must for study of the Gullah culture of the Southern Atlantic states. It is wonderful that the University of Georgia press reprinted Jones's 1888 collection.

The history of this book is interesting. Charles Colcock Jones compiled these folktales during the late 19th century. He developed much of his compilation based on the memory of stories that he heard as a youth growing up in the Deep South. He had a good ear for the Gullah creole, but the book shouldn't been seen as a completely accurate rendition of the language. The book is now reissued with an excellent introduction to Gullah culture and Jones' original compilation work. The stories, themselves, are really interesting, entertaining, and poignant to read. With a careful reading, the reader develops a greater familiarity with Gullah, and the stories becomes a resource for appreciating the beauty of Gullah. In this way, the stories and the Gullah speech interanimate each other.

Charles C. Jones Jr. is my great great great great grandfather and it is amazing to find his books being republished. So everybody read this book! and read it out lowd oh it ain't gwon te be no fuhn.

I gave this book to my boyfriends father for his birthday and he can't seem to put the book down. It is a wonderful book!