Mythology and Folklore Books

Like a lot of Maurice Sendak's books - you love it as a kid, and you love it as an adult for very different reasons.

I guess I need Dear Mili afterall to remind me of other things than life's mandane, and to help me see our seemingly unsatisfying life in a different light.

Maurice Sendak's drawings enhanced the classical beauty of the Grimm's fairytale. You can almost see the elegant images listlessly brings the words to life as the best storytellers do.

This story is sad, but told beautifully. It is also inspiring and comforting.

A little girl is sent into the woods alone by her fearful mother when war comes to the village. She manages to find peace and loving care in the home of St. Joseph. When it is time for her to return to the village so much has changed.

This tale by Grimm is beautiful. In my opinion it is translated well as the words are rich and descriptive and there is a satisfying pace to the story throughout. The introduction itself is nearly as moving as the tale that follows. Sendak's illustrations magically combine reality with imagination and the double page spreads grow out from the page and allow you to fall into them.
The setting and scene changes are enough to tug your emotions. This story's scene sequence is as follows: a quiet country village, a village in panic at the threat of invasion, a child wandering alone in the woods, a child in the comforting care of St. Joseph, back to the village which has now changed.

The subject matter is not light in this tale about love and two hearts coming together. A tale like this could not be as well told if one were to attempt to tell it lightly.

This book scared the crap out of me as a child. The images, the story are dark and nightmarish. The pictures are incredibly striking - I haven't picked up the book in years but I still remember many elements - fire licking from the sky, greyish tangling trees and flowers, the ghostly quality of the little girl. I wouldn't recommend this book for children. I don't think I've encountered anything in children's *or* adult literature since that has so disturbed me.

Dear Mili was a surprise in many ways. While Maurice Sendak has never failed to amaze, this tender rendering a newly discovered fairy tale set as a metaphor of children hidden in the holocaust is one of the most beautiful experiences a reader can have. This is my favorite children's book of all time: the artwork is I believe the peak of Sendak's career. A small girl living alone with her mother is sent for safety in the forest when a terrible foreboding threatens. In the forest she meets St. Joseph, and another small one, who keep her safe. Returning after a pleasant journey, she finds her mother aged and alone.
Their is joy and reunion: this is a poignant story on many levels. Looking deeply at the artwork one will see shoah themes:
Sendak in premiere Jewish sensitivity has done a remarkable thing: taken ancient Grimm Catholic legend and woven it into a metaphor for all of us, for all time. If this book does not tender the heart of the older who read to the younger, they have no heart. Absolutely 5-stars: Should be a classic and not out of print.

This is both a great read and an important historical document. Fanny Trollope was the mother of Anthony Trollope, perhaps the most prolific English novelist of the nineteenth century and my favorite. Fanny's husband was ineffectual in the breadwinning department, but fortunately for the family, Fanny herself was energetic and enterprising. She took one of her sons (not Anthony) and an artistic young man to the United States. She was planning to join a friend of hers who was a mover in setting up the utopian community in Harmony, Indiana, but the place turned out to be squalid, and she didn't stay long.

Fanny spent most of her time in the U.S. in Cincinnati and in her book is very hard on the city and its inhabitants. She especially objected to the pigs' role as garbage collectors. (In those days, pigs roamed the streets freely, like sheep grazing.) Fanny felt most of the people she encountered were loud, dirty, vulgar, and fanatically patriotic. It is her vivid descriptions of the physical conditions and the people that give this book its historical and entertainment value.

While she was living in Cinci, she opened a retail emporium and filled it with rather shoddy merchandise sent from England by her husband. She also attempted to bring culture to the inhabitants. Not surprisingly, both ventures failed.

After Mrs. Trollope returned to England, she supported her family by writing novels that were quite popular at the time, though they haven't become the classics her son's have. She spent her final years living in Italy with another son and his wife.

This is an extremely entertaining commentary on American manners and well written. I agree, however, with Mrs. Trollope's son, Anthony, who commented that Mrs. Trollope is a keen observer but she understands little. Certainly her complaints about the lack of gentility among Americans is valid but she completely missed the wonderful lack of class restraints endemic to English society which afforded Americans "class mobility"--freedom of opportunity (except for native Americans and slaves).

Fanny Trollope (1779-1863) wrote over 35 novels and several non-fictions books in her effort to rescue her family from poverty. However, the most read of all her books is "Domestic Manners of the Americans" which she published in 1832. It was in that distant year that Fanny and two of her children traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. Her purpose was to join a utopian community in Tennessee whose denizens were freed slaves.
Fanny left her impecunious and feckless husband the barrister Thomas Trollope back home in England. Her famous son Anthony did not make the trip as he was a student at Harrow School. Fanny knew her husband would join her in the USA when money became available. Later the family would flee to Bruges to escape creditors. Fanny eventually lived out her life in Florence near her son Thomas Trollope.
After leaving Tennessee the Trollopes settled for two years in the Queen City of the West Cincinnati, Ohio. Fanny did not like America or the American people! She found us xenephobic; boastful, prideful and violent.She hated the hypocrisy of life in Midwest Ohio although she did attend such cultural attractions as opera, plays and lectures. She favored the state Anglican Church of Great Britain not caring for America's separation between church and state.
This book could well be read alongside Charles Dickens' "American Notes for General Circulation" based on his 1842 six month trip to the USA.
Both Trollope and Dickens found the Americans crude, lacking in manners
and eager to make a quick buck. Listen to Trollope at her most scathing:
"..among the rich and the poor, in the slave states, and in the free states...I do not like them. I do not like their principals, I do not like their manners, I do not like their opinions." (p.314).
Fanny Trollope's book is more interesting than Dickens since she discusses colorful characters and shares anecdotes about her sojourn in our young republic. Like Dickens she hates the odious practice of tobacco chewing and the mangling of the English language. Trollope found us Yankees to be too serious and viewing us as poorly read. Unlike the wealthy and famous Dickens, Mrs. Trollope was a middle-aged woman fighting off poverty with her pen. I enjoyed her descriptions of nature such as those she paints of the Potomac River, Northern Virginia and the Niagra Falls area in New York and Canada. She is aware of flora and fauna and describes them with knowledge and in beautiful prose.
Dickens and Trollope give us the eye to see America in the days prior to the Civil War when the curse of chattel slavery ruled the land. Since those days America has granted freedom to all citizens. I wish both Fanny and Charles could visit us again in the 21st century. Their remarks would be of great interest to this reviewer and countless others!

All I can say is: what a great read! Who knew? Quite frankly, upon first sight of this book I must admit a bit of dread as the puritanical artwork does not smack of fun and games. Of course, as a literature student, I should know better than to ever judge a book by its cover.
Had I been Fanny Trollope writing such an account of America in the 1820s, I would be hardpressed to say that I would have changed a single word. Trollope has been the victim of many mean spirited caricatures and accusations by Americans and it still continues today, but what is interesting is that no one can do more than attack her person. In other words, no one seems to be able to refute her claims.
Trollope's "bitchiness" seems, for the most part, merited by my standards and while she finds much to complain about concerning an American democracy in its adolescence, she certainly discovers just as many things that she likes or finds beautiful.
Plain and simple, Americans collectively have a hard time taking criticism, especially from an outsider...and at that time, political criticism from a woman was deemed absurd if not audacious.
Last but not least, Fanny Trollope is always sure to preface anything she says with the conscious realization that she can only speak for what she has seen/heard personally and is thereby not judging ALL of America.
Trollope is witty and anecdotal and I think anyone interested in what an outspoken Englishwoman had to say about the New World should certainly pick up a copy. I found particular interest in gender/religious issues but got the most laughs out of her descriptions of American manners (or the lack thereof).
It is always interesting to see how much things have changed, and better yet, how many things have remained exactly the same!

Very entertaining read of the author's trip through 19th Century America, full of wonderful description and enlightening observations. Despite the griping below, Mrs Trollope simply reports what she sees - men spitting tobacco on the floor, ladies off in another room while the guys have a good time, etc. She reports accurately on our forefathers' rugged pioneer spirit, but points out the lack of education everywhere. We want to shout "lies!" but Mark Twain wrote about the same thing, and the aspects of our society that haven't changed much are still being commented on with the same frankness by writers like Saul Bellow, Gore Vidal, Dawn Powell, Paul Theroux and Joan Didion. Many true-hearted Americans will enjoy this book no end. Mrs Trollope clearly loved America and simply wrote truthfully about; she is simply beholden to no one - the essence of good writing. A thoroughly refreshing read.

I find Alexander McCall Smith's stories about Africa and her people to be fascinating. I wondered what his story-telling gift would make of the Celtic god of dreams. The structure surprised me, as the stories moved back and forth between the mythical God and the role of dreams in real life. On occasion, the connections between the stories were wrought with almost sublime irony and meaning. My favorite story in the book is I Dream of You which connects past and present, myth and reality in a most enjoyable way and describes the role that dream therapy can play in helping us.

The sentences in the book often sparkle with wit and wisdom that will leave you thinking about their wider meaning, rather merely wanting to continue reading the story: "They shouted to one another, words of encouragement, words of dismay at missed chances, urging others to run faster, to outwit the other group." That sentence has more imagination, meat, and insight in it than many novels that I read.

I found that the book was overly tied to the myth of Angus, the god. Mr. McCall Smith is much better with writing about people than writing about gods. With a shift in emphasis toward the current world, this would have been an outstanding, five-star book. As it is, the "current world" sections are terrific.

This slim book by the author of the popular Ladies Detective Agency series alternates dreamily between made-up Celtic mythology, maybe a bit fey but original, and some echoing episodes of modern life. I normally don't like this kind of thing at all, and it was, in the reading, captivating. Andrew McCall Smith knows how to tell a story. He's also a skilled writer, so the scenes are sewn together with a light and dextrous hand, moving easily from lyrical description to dialogue. The moral themes of the detective novels are infused rather than read aloud here. McCall Smith seems to have a fundamental optimism about life, and you feel he does not disdain his characters, despite their bad deeds, and various kinds of unhappiness or aimlessness, but rather offers them for our view with love and respect, seasoned with a bit of humor.

Fact: I will read with pleasure almost anything written by Alexander McCall Smith -- some titles with more pleasure than others, but anything with his name on the cover is practically guaranteed to provide gentle humor, sharp but never acerbic insight about people, and a view into worlds new to me.

"Dream Angus" hits all those marks and one more: it looks at the playful serious curious business of dreams and the purposes to which they might be put.

There are all kinds of serious words that can be delivered about a little book like this and probably there are treatises about whether Smith has written down the "One True Angus" or the one that he has simply invented. But I am not an aficionado of myth. What I causes me to recommend this book so strongly is its optimistic invitation to open oneself to possibiliities offered by the good, but perhaps unconventional scenarios of our dreams.

Your minister or mother or physician could issue this invitation (or imperative) to you, but it would not be as much fun.

this book was a breath of fresh air. it exposed me to celtic mythology which i know little of. not only does it focus on the myth of dream angus but on people living daily life and how in the seemingly mundane wonderment can exist in this case the gift if dreaming. we see dream angus in the past and present. we see how he will always have a place. smith's writing is beautifully crafted as always. he seems to have away of making you feel right with the world even with its struggles. if you are a fan of smith's you will not be disappointed and if you aren't you will become one.

For lovers of Celtic mythology and lore, this is a must read. For dreamers (and who doesn't dream?) ... it's a must read.

Alexander McCall Smith has written a gorgeous retelling of the myth of Angus, interlaced with a series of deeply provocative modern vignettes. I read Dream Angus in one sitting, stunned at the beauty & eloquence of McCall Smith's storytelling. For me, the tales provoked tears of empathy with the human experience. I can see myself giving this slim volume as gifts, many times over. It's a tale to read again and again ... either in its entirety, or by individual chapters.

Anyone who is interested in fairy tales, myth, allegory and related topics would benefit from reading this book. Marina Warner's knowledge base is amazing and at times a lot to digest, but her perspective is like none other. I read it through once to get the flavor of what she's saying and am now on my way back through noting things I want to look up and explore further. One thing I've learned is that there are a lot of images in our everyday life that harken back to the earliest days and we have no understanding anymore of their significance, for example the Stork or the figure of Mother Goose. The book is an eye opener in that regard.

I read this book back in high school when I was just starting to get interested in fairy tale analysis. It's very indepth, well-written, and enjoyable. It's easy to understand and straightforward but offers so much information you're bound to learn something new. I highly recommend From the Beast to the Blonde to anyone that loves fairy tales or mythology.

Marina Warner writes absolutely beautiful prose, which alone is worth the price of this book. She is ... well, "enchanting" on the subject of myth as social commentary and psychological revelation.

Warner understands that much of our mythic wisdom is feminine wisdom -- and, like Jung, she appreciates that "feminine" and "masculine" are words that describe aspects of what is universally human, not contradictory or competing factions in society.

All human intellectual disciplines involve story-telling and myth. History, for instance, is filled with mythic twists on "true" stories. (See Warner's own book on Joan of Arc, for example.) Similarly the Western chronicle of scientific achievement is a collection of metaphors ("Newton's clock," "Superstrings") that are useful for a while, then get discarded. Accordingly, the literal-minded should pause to consider exactly what they mean by "truth": Iris Murdoch has suggested that: "You may know a truth, but if it is at all complicated you have to be an artist not to utter it as a lie."

The legacy of stories we have inherited were usually first told by women, often to children, in a world where both of these groups of persons lacked real power. The stories, unsurprisingly, reflect the concerns and fears of people in such circumstances, as well as the general interests and universal dreams of human beings always and everywhere.

We need them. We cannot live without them -- both stories and women, that is.

If you love fairy tales and their backgrounds, buy this book. It's worth the read. Warner is an excellent author, and she makes a very good point regarding the role of women in the passing along of fairy tales to the next generation. This is a terrific book on fairy tales, and folklore in general.

Marina Warner's _From the Beast to the Blonde_ is a wonderful and engaging work concerning the cultural history of fairy tales. Warner explores the "stock characters" and stories of traditional tales, and in the process creates an excellent work of scholarship and criticism in an area of literature that has been relegated to the nursery, but didn't start there.

I unashamedly admit I loved this book. It was such a glorious flash back to my youth. And the silly songs/rhymes we used to sing/chant. I even shared this with my 11 year old son. Who was rather confused by this practice of "stupid songs" but enjoyed learning a few with me, and I even caught his singing "greasy grimey gopher guts" to my baby the other day..who adored it.

As the other reviewers have stated, this is a great collection of naughty rhymes and chants from childhood. However, I have to agree with the psychiatrist. I would have liked more analysis. This seems to be a great topic for somebody's doctoral thesis. How do these verses originate? Are most of them created by children for children? What can we learn about children from them?

On second thought, maybe it is best that these verses remain under wraps. There is something to be said about an under the radar way that children have to harmlessly express their rebelliousness.

If you love subversiveness, I'd also suggest Nick Bantock's , "Averse to Beasts," a book with a cassette filled with creepy little ryhmes!

I had two immediate reactions on reading this book: "Yep, we had that one - words aren't quite right, though" and "Wait a minute! Where's (such-and-such) rhyme? How did they miss that one?" This is a great book, and a very useful reference for those who didn't realize that they do, in fact, know the tune to "The Old Gray Mare" (see title of book), "The Colonel Bogey March" ("Comet! It makes your lips turn green. . .") and "The Whiffenpoof Song" (several insulting versions lampooning schools). This book will take you back to your childhood. That's not the childhood that you're going to claim to your kids that you had, but the actual one where you made up nasty names for school food. Mind you, if you allow your children to read this book, you will receive many, many indignant phone calls from the parents in your neighborhood, but I'd say it's worth the risk.

i swiped this book from my brother who swiped it from my mother who got it at a used book sale- so its been around the block a few times. i am now 16 an begin using this book at the age of 10. manny a days were spent at the lunch table with my frineds laughing at- and using these rymes( such as; hark the harold angles shout! # more days till school gets out! grab you ball and grab your chan, and run like hell to the nearist train) sooner of later it became known as " the bible" to my groop.all thse yesrs it has been a tresured posetion of mine, and from time to time i bing it out once more to my friends- and it still keep us laughing.

This not only contains every story the Grimms wrote/recorded, it keeps them in their original state, so that you aren't reading the cleaned up version that keeps out the parts of a story that modern middle class parents might find "too scary". Children enjoy hearing a story told to them without a book, and this is a great resource for stories to learn and tell orally or while they are laying down for nap time, they can hear you as you read to them. If the story gets a little too scary and they tell you, you can yourself gloss it over but usually, I find the kids can handle it and enjoy hearing a different version of a tale they already know.
The only problem for me is that the type is a little small and the stories are crowded together. But all of the stories are there and it's already a pretty thick book so unless You want The Oxford Dictionary Like collection of Grimms Fairy Tales, you make do.

What a great read! As an adult reading this to myself I am enjoying these tales! Contrary to what most people think these tales truly are meant for adult ears and are of interest to all ages.

Manheim explains that in early translations these were incorrectly labeled fairy tales and mistakenly assumed they were stories for children only. Over and over I am shocked by the gruesome content and punishments. Punishment by entrapping someone inside a barrel lined with the nail heads and then rolling them down a hill, father cutting off his daughters hands to avoid harm to himself, etc.

The reason I began reading these was to get a purist idea of what the Grimms' tales were: having grown up on the Disney version I was curious about the real thing. I was surprised at what I found, and happy! I was hoping to retell these stories to my 3 year-old but I have yet to find one that is tame enough to retell to him, but that is okay.

The storytelling nature of this is truly captured and I am entranced by these tales. The translator explains in his preface that this was the first time that the tales were translated from German to English by one person who was reading the original Grimms' manuscripts. This was first published in 1977. Manheim explains how earlier translations by other translators were muddled and errors made which changed some words, and at worst enough of the content was erroneous that the reader was really missing out on the true flavor and intent of the story. Manheim claims his edition is the most pure English translation. I compared this with my copy of the Pantheon edition edited by James Stern, as I was reading both copies at the same time. I found that the Manheim edition made more sense, that is, that some words were correctly translated to English while the other book had some words that I had just never heard of and could not understand. What fun to read these tales! Reading this book has been more fun than reading some recent fictional works. I have a renewed interest in reading about the old folk tales and fables now. Indulge yourself and read this book!

I've always loved fairy tales, and I've never found a better version of Grimm's Tales. Why? The translation! Other versions tend to gloss over the details, taking away from the richness (and occasionally, gruesomeness) of the original. Manheim stays true to the spirit of the work in his translation, and the character of the original really shines through.

The best example I can give is one of the stories -- "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers." Other versions translate this as "The Boy who left home to find out what fear was." Why is this wrong? Well, the story is really about the physical effects of fear -- shivering. He didn't actually leave home to find out about fear itself. The gist of the story is that the main character never understood why his brother would "get the shivers" when he heard a scary story, so (among other reasons) he leaves home to seek his fortune. No matter what scary things he encounters, he never gets the shivers. Finally, at the end, the princess he married gets fed up with his whining about the shivers, and while he's sleeping, dumps a bucket of cold water full of minnows on him. He wakes up happy, saying "I'm shivering, I'm shivering!"

To this day, I use this story as a test of any translation of the Brothers Grimm.

How oft we remember dreaming - day dreams as a child and letting our imagination run wild! The Grimm's Fairy Tales are all *Five* Favourite Stars in my Read and Make Read collection in my Library. Some of my fav stories are:
1. Hansel & Gretel
2. Red Riding Hood
3. Snot White
4. Rumpelstiltskin
5. Cinderalla
6. Sleeping Beauty

Many More...you name it and these stories make your dreams sound true! Children love to read and listen. Even write reviews. This book is a famous collection of German Folk Tales by two brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. The first volume contained 86 tales and the second 70 and the last around 210 tales. The translations are perfect in this book and and took minute care to language details. The Grimms had taken pains to collect the tales mainly from friends and acquaintances who lived in and around a place called kassel in Germany and printed as expression of the spirit of german people. These retold stories with their own versions, the brothers have come out to suit public taste and their ideas about telling tales effectively. The translator Ralph Manheim has taken pains equally in translations! I recommend a 'Sure Sure Pick' whether one is a kid or a teen or even an Adult. Nothing like these stories will ever take you on a trip to wonderland! My Choice, of coz!

Before this book, I had only known the juvenile -"G" rated versions of Grimms. As I had to read this for summer reading, I have to say, it's a bit of an eye opener. This book is great for analysis- you can see why my English teacher picked it (guess he thought we needed a challenge as we already speak English) One fault I do find is in the title: Grimms' Tales...for YOUNG and Old? I would not recomend anyone under the age of maybe thirteen to read this book. I doubt they would understand it very well.

This is one of the best mystery books that I have read in a long time. The characters were very believable, and the story line made me keep turning the pages. This mystery is phenomenal without a predictable ending! A must read.

A great mystery read, one that takes off with a great story line, and plot. An excellent read, and it will keep you guessing. And this story line is so great it will keep you at the end of your seat! A must read for anyone that loves mystery books. Like Mary Higgins Clark, Kathy Perry, does a great story line in the way she writes. This is a 5 star and a must read!

This is a great read. I like how the author Kathy Perry, wrote the story line. All though the book she had the turns and twists going! But, WOW! The way she made everything come together in the end was magical! This book rates 5 stars from me. I never left my seat until the entire book was read! I JUST COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN.! I hope this goes to film for this would be one best seller. I can't wait for the sequel,I hope another cliff hanger, what a plot! I am looking forward to "Brotherly Love." Thank you for this wonderful read.

This novel "Haunted Past," sure was an eye opener for me. Like all great mysteries, this held my interest, and had me turning pages, to see what turn it was going to take next.Like all great mystery writers this author, has made it interesting enough that you really don't want to put the book down. The author Kathy Perry, has done some really great work here, and has made this book tops in the mystery field. I along with many of my family members are looking forward to, "Brotherly Love." For the author to cover up the person, that was evil took some really great planning, on her part. I feel that this author will make the sequel to "Haunted Past," just as inviting. For those who hasn't read "Haunted Past," as yet, I suggest they do. It is one great mystery and written very well. I give this a 5 star rating. I also feel that this mystery story will make a great film. I have to say author kathy perry, has a great web site as well. You can reach it at; .... Check it out. Good luck to this new author. Once again a really great mystery story line. Thumbs up!

To sum up this Book by Kathleen Perry "haunted past" I just want to say it is a 5 Star book filled with Mystery, and Suspense. Awesome Book-Go Get it!!!!! Great Job!!! The best book I read in 15 years since "The Outsiders" by SE Hinton.

During a time of conflict and upheavel, a wandering story teller is arrested by a perfidious bureaucrat for the crime of appearing suspicious and being in the wrong place at the wrong time (and possible violations of the Patriot Act). Imprisoned, Kai Lung does not languish. Although his enemy has the ear of the local mandarin, Kai Lung is aided by a beautiful woman who possesses the mandarin's other ear. In the tradition of "The Arabian Nights" our hero intrigues the mandarin's interest, spinning tales by turn ironic, poignant and pointed. With each tale told, the sympathy of the mandarin, the frustration of the bureaucrat and the love between Kai Lung and his ally grow accordingly and Kai Lung survives another day.

This story is set in the China of long ago and related through the filter of an early twentieth century english writer. The courtly, overly flowery language is deliciously funny and displays a sly satiricism which reminds me of "Gulliver's Travels". A truly timeless gem which may be read on different levels by different ages.

Will Kai Lung survive? Yes, but you really should see how...

During a time of conflict and upheavel, a wandering story teller is arrested by a perfidious bureaucrat for the crime of appearing supicious and being in the wrong place at the wrong time (and possible violations of the Patriot Act). Imprisoned, Kai Lung does not languish. Although his enemy has the ear of the local mandarin, Kai Lung is aided by a beautiful woman who possesses the mandarin's other ear. In the tradition of "The Arabian Nights" our hero intrigues the mandarin's interest, spinning tales by turn ironic, poignant and pointed. With each tale told, the sympathy of the mandarin, the frustration of the bureaucrat and the love between Kai Lung and his ally grow accordingly and Kai Lung survives another day.


This story is set in the China of long ago and related through the filter of an early twentieth century english writer. The courtly, overly flowery language is deliciously funny and displays a sly satiricism which reminds me of "Gulliver's Travels". A truely timeless gem which may be read on different levels by different ages.

Will Kai Lung survive? Yes, but you really should see how...

I tried to write my comments on Ernest Bramagh's Kai Lung's Golden Hours, which I just finished, in the same style:

In the opinion of this lowly reader, the esteemed author before our unworthy eyes has created a gem of the highest quality, polished by fine craft.

But you can only do this so long before you get frustrated, which is why you have to admire Bramagh, because he could maintain this oblique and ornate style throughout and still manage to tell a compelling and, more than often, extremely humorous story.

The titular character, Kai Lung, is a storyteller who runs afoul of the local authorities, in particular a rather nasty advisor. The problem is that Kai has set his eyes on a most beautiful young woman who is also highly desired by the advisor, and the mandarin in charge is quite corrupt. The one saving grace for Kai Lung is that the mandarin also likes a good story. Like Scherazade, Kai Lung is therefore in the positive of entertaining for his life, and that he is able to accomplish this is not due to the fragment of 1001 stories available to him, but also the help of his beloved (a fairly strong female character given the situation and the date this was written, 1922).

Not everyone will care for this book, because a style as circular and dense as this doesn't lead itself to the short-attention-span-generation (only James Branch Cabell has a more elaborate, yet beautiful, prose form in fantasy). I don't know what it was about the 1920s that enabled the creation of such great comedy (Bramagh, Cabell, P.G. Wodehouse [who first became popular as a novelist in the 1920s], Thorne Smith). Maybe it was the post-War jubiliation, the underground of prohibition, or the pre-Depression stockmarket? Not ours to wonder why, but just to enjoy and laugh.

The earlier reviewers of this book have said everything there is to say (and much better than I could have said it). I am the lucky possessor of a collected volume of all the Kai Lung stories. After having read Kai Lung's golden hours and the other books in the series, there was just one thing felt : a sense of profound sadness that there isn't more of Kai Lung to read!

I am adding this in 2003. I was wrong in writing that I have the entire collection of Kai Lung books. I learnt subsequently that there are a few missed out from my collection. For the records here is the complete list of the published Kai Lung stories :

The Wallet of Kai Lung
Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat
Kai Lung's Golden Hours
The Moon of Much Gladness (novel)
Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry Tree
Kai Lung: Six

The last apparently contains six Kai Lung stories previously published ONLY in Punch magazine; the print edition for this book ran into a mere 250 copies and was published by Tacoma: The Non-Profit Press, 1974.

I have only the following :

The Wallet of Kai Lung
Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat
Kai Lung's Golden Hours
Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry Tree

Kai Lung: Six, unfortunately was published in a very limited number of copies and I am unable to acquire one at an affordable price. The Moon of Much Gladness I hope to get soon.

My thanks to one of the persons who read this review and through his queries alerted me to the fact that - as I discovered later -my Kai Lung collection was not complete.

If you're here for the first time, then you have my sympathy on learning that this book is out of print. It's time for a re-issue--are you listening, Penguin Classics?

These stories are about a wandering storyteller, who gets into various jams and escapes with the aid of his silver tongue and an admiring coquette. For someone who apparently never visited China, and never even met that many Chinese, the verisimilitude Bramah achieves is amazing. This is an English child's storybook China, yet the stories themselves richly delight adults, too. The scene-setting is wonderful, but the real gem is the dialogue. Suave, sly, elliptically ceremonious, mock-abnegating--but you really have to read it to catch the flavor. Hillaire Belloc's introduction is on the money about how deceptively easy this style looks, and it is a great pity that more people do not have the opportunity to enjoy this and the other Kai Lung works today.

May your sleeves be filled with a sufficiency of taels, and may hungry and homeless ghosts find solace at your house-pole, and preserve your family tablets from the mischiefs of the lesser orders of the beings of the Upper Air...

Michael P. McGarry has provided the necessary and useful lists of essays on all 6 of the Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, edited by Joseph Campbell. I only wish to add a few comments on Volume 6 since I finished reading all of the essays in this volume today.
There is a good amount of information by Gilles Quispel in his 37 page essay "Gnostic Man: The Doctrine of Basilides" and in the impressive 68 page essay "The Concept of Redemption in Manichaeism" by Henri-Charles Putch. However, the literary prize in my opinion goes to Erich Neumann for his wonderful 41 page essay "Mystical Man." This is a distinguished piece of essay writing, worthy of an Emerson. It is the only essay that is wholly Jungian in approach, and he does a magnificent job of presenting the concept of mysticism in strictly Jungian terms. He proposes man as "homo mysticus" for whom the mystical experience is not something distant or rare but a part of the normal human experience. "The reality of this encounter is one of the fundamental facts of man's existence . . ." I found Neumann's essay to be very inspiring, which is something one does not often find in academic papers of these kinds. To me, it was worth the price of the entire book.

Since 1933, the Eranos Conferences have gathered the world's leading scholars of religion and mythology. This set consists of Joseph Campbell's selections of the best papers from that conference. This is Volume 3, "Man and Time". The twelve papers include: Erich Neumann, "Art and Time"; Henri-Charles Puech, "Gnosis and Time"; Gilles Quispel, "Time and History in Patristic Christianity"; Louis Massignon, "Time in Islamic Thought"; Henry Corbin, "Cyclical Time in Mazdaism and Ismailism"; Mircea Eliade, "Time and Eternity in Indian Thought"; Carl Jung, "On Synchronicity"; Hellmut Wilhelm, "The Concept of Time in the Book of Changes"; Helmuth Plessner, "On the Relation of Time to Death"; Max Knoll, "Transformations of Science in Our Age"; Adolf Portmann, "Time in the Life of the Organism"; and G. van der Leeuw, "Primordial Time and Final Time."

Since 1933, the Eranos Conferences have gathered the world's leading scholars of religion and mythology. This set consists of Joseph Campbell's selections of the best papers from that conference. This is Volume 6, "The Mystic Vision". The fourteen papers include: Boris Vysheslawzeff, "Two Ways of Redemption: Redemption as the Solution of the Tragic Condition"; Wilhelm Koppers, "On the Origin of the Mysteries in the Light and Ethonology and Indology"; Heinrich Zimmer, "The Indian World Mother"; Erwin Rouselle, "Dragon and Mare, Figures of Primordial Chinese Mythology"; Ernesto Buonaiuti, "Christ and St. Paul", "Christology and Ecclesiology in St. Paul", and "Symbols and Rites in the Religious Life of Certain Monastic Orders"; Gilles Quispel, "Gnostic Man: The Doctrine of Basilides"; Henri-Charles Puech, "The Concept of Redemption in Manichaeism"; Louis Massignon, "Nature in Islamic Thought" and "The Idea of the Spirit in Islam"; Jean de Manasce, "The Experience of the Spirit in Christian Mysticism"; Friedrich Heiler, "The Madonna as Religious Symbol"; and Erich Neumann, "Mystical Man".

Since 1933, the Eranos Conferences have gathered the world's leading scholars of religion and mythology. This set consists of Joseph Campbell's selections of the best papers from that conference. This is Volume 5, "Man and Transformation". The eleven papers include: Mircea Eliade, "Mystery and Spiritual Regeneration in Extra-European Religions"; Fritz Meier, "The Transformation of Man in Mystical Islam"; Henry Corbin, "Divine Epiphany and Spiritual Birth in Ismailian Gnosis"; Paul Tillich, "The Importance of New Being for Christian Theology"; Daisetz T. Suzuki, "The Awakening of a New Consciousness in Zen"; Ernst Benz, "Theogony and the Transformation of Man in Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schilling"; Lancelot Law Whyte, "The Growth of Ideas"; Jean Daniélou, "The Dove and the Darkness in Ancient Byzantine Mysticism"; Adolf Portmanm "Metamorphosis in Animals: The Transformations of the Individual and the Type"; Heinrich Zimmer, "Death and Rebirth in the Light of India"; and G. van der Leeuw, "Immortality."

Since 1933, the Eranos Conferences have gathered the world's leading scholars of religion and mythology. This set consists of Joseph Campbell's selections of the best papers from that conference. This is Volume 2, "The Mysteries". The fourteen papers include: Paul Masson-Oursel, "The Indian Theories of Redemption in the Frame of the Religions of Salvation" and "The Doctrine of Grace in the Religious Thought of India"; Walter F. Otto, "The Meaning of the Eleusinian Mysteries"; Carl Kerényi, "The Mysteries of the Kabeiroi"; Walter Wili, "The Orphic Mysteries and the Greek Spirit"; Paul Schmitt, "The Ancient Mysteries in the Society of Their Time, Their Transformation and Most Recent Echoes"; Georges Nagel, "The `Mysteries' of Osiris in Ancient Egypt"; Jean de Manasce, "The Mysteries and the Religion of Iran"; Fritz Meier, "The Mystery of the Ka'ba: Symbol and Reality in Islamic Mysticism"; Max Pulver, "Jesus' Round Dance and Crucifixion According to the Acts of St. John"; Hans Leisegang, "The Mystery of the Serpent"; Julius Baum, "Symbolic Representations of the Eucharist"; Carl Jung, "Transformation Symbolism in the Mass"; and Hugo Rahner, "The Christian Mystery and the Pagan Mysteries."

If you like Harry Potter you wil love Manitou. Magic is real! You get a feeling that all the characters in the book can come to life. You know that you can become a magician...a singer ... anything you want to be once you are involved in the world of Manitou. There is a secret in H. Potter that I have found in Manitou, that secret is in all of us.

Manitou brings mythology to life! This book seems to radiate love and understanding, as an unusual assortment of young people, gods and goddesses, and a cat, travel through time up a mysterious river to Manitou, the Land of Living Imagination. An amazing amount of wisdom (and love) is imparted in this must-read novel by the remarkable Ramona du Houx. This is a book you will treasure and want to share. The illustrations by Ramona and Emily add to the pleasure.

Manitou brings mythology to life! This book seems to radiate love and understanding, as an unusual assortment of young people, gods and goddesses, and a cat, travel through time up a mysterious river to Manitou, the Land of Living Imagination. An amazing amount of wisdom (and love) is imparted in this must-read novel by the remarkable Ramona du Houx. This is a book you will treasure and want to share. The illustrations by Ramona and Emily add to the pleasure.

This amazing novel brings together peoples from around the globe with wisdom imparted through clever, funny and serious stories. Serious situations are defused with the stories making me see how much we need stories in our everyday lives. The tales keep me reading, as if I was involved in a Greek myth. I never realized how much so many nations have in common through mythological tales until I researched cats around the globe. Manitou honors them as did ancient civilizations. From the Egyptian "Best" cat to the Japanese Welcome cat and the American pussy, Manitou gives cats , and other animals, roles they deserve. I am an animal lover, and believe anyone who believes in humanity shares this love. That's why I recommend Manitou, for it has restored my belief in humanity.

Wow, I was hoping to find a book full of adventure and myth and I did! The way the adventure builds is surprising. It was what I had been looking for. I needed a book to project the truth that adventure is everywhere we explore in nature. Just to be in nature with the insightful characters of the book has inspired me. It brings the ancient days of the Greek gods and goddesses forward into our time conveying an atmosphere from a magical land. Truly exciting. I want my middle school students to read this novel.

Lyn Cole