Tall Tales Taller Tales And Out And Out Lies

Most of these stories are true. Some are fabrications. "The Gun Show" is one. It is a loose interpretation of an event. If you are familiar with the event, you will understand the satire. The stories, such as "The Great Possum Slayer", tell of a hunting adventure. We are all guilty of doing something to a friend in the name of fun. "The night Before Christmas" describes a practical joke that turned out better than planned! Several stories, as an example, "BB'S & Bumblebees", reflect on our desire to imitate our parents. Several of the stories convey a safety message. "The Hazards of Plastic Bullets", is an example that shows what can happen in the blink of an eye when we choose to disregard a simple safety statement. Some of the stories deal with older people and a time not so long ago. These people believed that you took care of your problem. You will notice in these stories, the problem would have gone away or been taken care of long before law enforcement could arrive. With our modern communications we can now summon the Calvary in an instant. It has not been too long ago that this was not the case in a lot of areas of our great nation. "The Letter", is an adaptation of a letter I want read at my funeral. Surprise, fear, courage, fortitude and a child's belief that they are bullet proof are all expressed in stories in this book. A book of this nature easily causes us to reflect on our lives and events that have slipped into our fading memory. If this book reminds a single individual of any similar events in their past, makes them a safer individual, or makes them laugh it will have succeed in its purpose beyond expectations.

A collection of tall tales involving animals, the weather, narrow escapes, and many other topics.

A truly complete collection of fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm featuring color plates and illustrations from award-winning illustrator, Arthur Rackham.

This compilation of fairy tales includes the complete canon of over 200 tales that has become a beloved set of classical stories the world over. Grimm brothers rediscovered a host of fairy tales, telling of princes and princesses in their castles, witches in their towers and forests, of giants and dwarfs, of fabulous animals and dark deeds. Together with the well-known tales of "Rapunzel", "The Goose-Girl", "Sleeping Beauty", "Hansel and Gretel" and "Snow White" there are the darker tales such as "Death's Messengers" which deserve to be better known, and which will appeal not only to all who are interested in the history of folklore, but also to all those who simply love good storytelling. The two brothers wished to preserve their German folklore in a collection of tales that they believed had been handed down for generations. When they began in 1812 they had just 86 stories that rather harshly reflected the difficult life of European peasantry. Subsequent editions would grow to hold over 200 tales. As time passed, the Brothers Grimm found that their collection of fairy tales, with all of its royalty, magical creatures, and brave adventures, entranced those who read them. Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and his brother Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859) were philologists and folklorists.

Western history buffs and rail fans will find a rich and interesting history of the mining town of Austin, Nevada and the narrow gauge railroad that served the town for almost 60 years, the Nevada Central Railroad. Several photographs and maps show the town and the railroad as it was.

Mark Twain and the Art of the Tall Tale explores a predominantly American comic strategy and its role in Mark Twain's fiction. Focusing on the writer's experiments with narrative structure, Wonham describes how Twain manipulated conventional approaches to reading and writing by engaging his audience in a series of rhetorical games - the rules of which he adapted from the conventions of the tall tale in American oral and written traditions. After surveying the rich history of yarn-spinning in America, Wonham traces Twain's appropriation of the genre through the course of his career, from The Innocents Abroad to Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Pudd'nhead Wilson. He contends that as Twain turned from short sketches to extended travelogues and quasi-fiction, he found in the tall tale a means of dramatizing his disparate comic material. Later, as Twain worked consciously to purge his writing of its anecdotal quality, the oral genre remained central to his imagination - less as a source of comic material than as a paradigmatic encounter between competing points of view, an encounter that resonates throughout the author's major fiction. Offering an original interpretation of Twain's narrative and rhetorical techniques, this absorbing and readable study will interest Twain enthusiasts and students of nineteenth-century American literature, as well as anyone interested in American humor and oral narrative traditions.

To Carolyn Brown s mind, the tall tale is not necessarily an account of the adventures of a larger-than-life hero, nor is it just a humorous first-person narrative exaggerated to outlandish proportions. It is as well an interaction between teller and audience a game played at the hazy border between the credible and the incredible, a challenge and an entertainment at the same time. The tall tale is also a social statement that identifies and binds a folk group by flaunting the peculiar knowledge and experiences of group members, and it is a tool for coping with a stressful or even chaotic world, for conquering life s problems by laughing at them.