Customer Reviews

The Victorian Fairytale Book (Pantheon Fairy Tale & Folklore Library)

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"Some amuse, some enchant, some satirize, some criticize--after all, no one creates an alternative world who is content with his own." ~Michael Patrick Hearn, from his introduction in "The Victorian Fairy Tale Book"

(What a relevant quote!) Okay. Moving through my luscious pile of period literature and, oh boy, struck gold with this one! Now, I am admittedly a kind-of-Golden Age-fairy tale-lovin-kind-of-girl, and Michael Patrick Hearn's "The Victorian Fairy Tale Book" is just one peach of a great anthology! I was not disappointed.

First, the introduction alone is worth the price of the book as Hearn offers one of the most thoughtful and lucid critiques of fairy tale lit I think I have ever read. I don't pretend to be a scholar in this genre, but it is nicely written (and digested) with interesting looks at the writers (among the greatest of their time) and their foray into this style. Did you know Charles Dickens wanted to marry Little Red Riding Hood? You did? Well, I did not, so these little nuggets of insight were really fun for me.

Hearn is a man who surely knows his stuff and who most definitely encouraged me to want to dig in and explore further into this most imaginative style of literature.

I believe he selected the best Victorian tales and poems from many of the period's most celebrated writers including Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde ("The Selfish Giant"), W.B. Yeats ("The Stolen Child"), and (oh yes, *it* is in this one!) Christina Rossetti ("The Goblin Market"). Each story is accompanied by either its original illustrations or paired with art from the period's most notable illustrators including Maxfield Parish, Arthur Rackham, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. What a nice treat it was to see that!

Highly recommended as a book not just for kids, as you will relish the moments reading this one aloud to them. I loved it, even if I had to read much of it aloud to myself. Ennnnnnunciate and Enjoy!

This is a delightful book for children and adults. It is easy and fun to read as fairy tales are suppose to be, but they are also very deep and thought provoking! It stimulates imagination, is instructive about life, and motivates moral aspirations.