Victorian Fairy Tales
Victorian Fairy Tales
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Summary
This anthology brings together 14 of the best Victorian fairy tales, by major period writers as well as specialists in the genre, to show the vibrancy of the form and its ability to reflect our deepest concerns. From whimsy to satire, the stories reveal the preoccupations of the age and celebrate the value of the imagination.
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Victorian Fairy Tales by Michael Newton
The Victorian fascination with fairyland is reflected in the literature of the period, which includes some of the most imaginative fairy tales ever written. They offer the shortest path to the age's dreams, desires, and wishes. Authors central to the nineteenth-century canon such as Thackeray, Oscar Wilde, Ford Madox Ford, and Rudyard Kipling wrote fairy tales, and authors primarily famous for their work in the genre include George MacDonald, Juliana Ewing, Mary De Morgan, and Andrew Lang. This anthology brings together fourteen of the best stories, by these and other outstanding practitioners, to show the vibrancy and variety of the form and its ability to reflect our deepest concerns. The stories in this selection range from pure whimsy and romance to witty satire and darker, uncanny mystery. Paradox proves central to a form offered equally to children and adults. Fairyland is a dynamic and beguiling place, one that permits the most striking explorations of gender, suffering, love, family, and the travails of identity. Michael Newton's introduction and notes explore the literary marketplace in which these tales appeared, as well as the role they played in contemporary debates on scepticism and belief. The book also includes a selection of original illustrations by some of the masters of the field such as Richard Doyle, Arthur Hughes, and Walter Crane.
this collection does show why the fairy tale can be so irresistable, for both nostalgic and romantic reasons* Eve Wersocki Morris, Times Literary Supplement *
With reproductions of some of the original black and white illustrations by (among others) Arthur Hughes and Walter Crane, a silken bookmark and a truly glorious cover, Victorian Fairy Tales is a perfect gift volume for both adults and older children. Rather like the stories themselves, the book works beautifully on two levels, both as a collection of fairy tales to be read and enjoyed for their own sake and with its appendix and copious explanatory notes as a detailed and fascinating window into the Victorian mind. * Vulpes Libris, Moira Briggs *
What a delightful place is fairyland and there is no more delightful guide to explore it with than Michael Newton. Truly a book to treasure. * Northern Echo, Steve Craggs *
What Michael Newton has done here is no easy feat: creating a collection of fairy tales that is both entertaining and educational... Newton's Victorian Fairy Tales is a beguiling and dynamic anthology. * The Writer's Drawer, Stephen Reeves *
With reproductions of some of the original black and white illustrations by (among others) Arthur Hughes and Walter Crane, a silken bookmark and a truly glorious cover, Victorian Fairy Tales is a perfect gift volume for both adults and older children. Rather like the stories themselves, the book works beautifully on two levels, both as a collection of fairy tales to be read and enjoyed for their own sake and with its appendix and copious explanatory notes as a detailed and fascinating window into the Victorian mind. * Vulpes Libris, Moira Briggs *
What a delightful place is fairyland and there is no more delightful guide to explore it with than Michael Newton. Truly a book to treasure. * Northern Echo, Steve Craggs *
What Michael Newton has done here is no easy feat: creating a collection of fairy tales that is both entertaining and educational... Newton's Victorian Fairy Tales is a beguiling and dynamic anthology. * The Writer's Drawer, Stephen Reeves *
Michael Newton has taught at University College London, Princeton University, and Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design, and now works at Leiden University. He is the author of Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children (Faber, 2002), Age of Assassins: A History of Conspiracy and Poltical Violence, 1865-1981 (Faber, 2012) and a book on Kind Hearts and Coronets for the BFI Film Classics series. He has edited Edmund Gosse's Father and Son for Oxford World's Classics, and The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories and Conrad's The Secret Agent for Penguin. He has written and reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, the New Statesman, and The Guardian.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780199601950 |
| ISBN 10 | 019960195X |
| Title | Victorian Fairy Tales |
| Author | Michael Newton |
| Series | Oxford World's Classics |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Year published | 2015-05-01 |
| Number of pages | 544 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |