Wonder Tales

Especially for grown-ups, this is a selection of subversive, satirical, and sophisticated fairy tales full of polished wit and prose.

Brigit ceased to sing, and there was silence for a little space in Tir-na-Moe. Then Angus said: "Strange are the words of your song, and strange the music: it swept me down steeps of air--down--down--always further down. Tir-na-Moe was like a dream half-remembered. I felt the breath of strange worlds on my face, and always your song grew louder and louder, but you were not singing it. Who was singing it?" "The Earth was singing it." "The Earth!" said the Dagda. "Is not the Earth in the pit of chaos? Who has ever looked into that pit or stayed to listen where there is neither silence nor song? " "O Shepherd of the Star-Flocks, I have stayed to listen. I have shuddered in the darkness that is round the Earth. I have seen the black hissing waters and the monsters that devour each other--I have looked into the groping writhing adder-pit of hell." The light that pulsed about the De Danaan lords grew troubled at the thought of that pit, and they cried out: "Tell us no more about the Earth, O Flame of the Two Eternities, and let the thought of it slip from yourself as a dream slips from the memory." "O Silver Branches that no Sorrow has Shaken," said Brigit, "hear one thing more! The Earth wails all night because it has dreamed of beauty."

"[Dunsany's] rich language, his cosmic point of view, his remote dream-worlds, and his exquisite sense of the fantastic, all appeal to me more than anything else in modern literature."--American author H. P. Lovecraft One of English literature's most original talents, Irish writer Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, the eighteenth Baron of Dunsany, created many of the best fantastic tales in the language. This collection of 33 stories includes all of the tales from two of his finest collections, including "The Three Sailors' Gambit," "The House of the Sphinx," "The Wonderful Window," "The Bad Old Woman in Black," "The Watch-Tower," "The Three Infernal Jokes," "The Secret of the Sea," and 26 other literary gems.

Marina Warner has gathered together a magical collection of fairy tales by the great women storytellers of the 17th and 18th centuries. These are passionate, extraordinary, and occasionally proto-feminist retellings of classic fairy stories by women who ingeniously used the fairy tale genre to comment on their own times and experiences. The stories are all in superb new translations by celebrated writers, including A. S. Byatt, Gilbert Adair and John Ashbery. With a brilliant intorduction by Marina Warner, recognised as one of our greatest experts on myth and fairy tale.

Includes twenty-seven folktales from Europe, Asia, Africa, India, the Arctic, and the Americas.

This volume provides sustained critical attention on Byatt’s wonder tales, both the stand-alone tales and those which are embedded in the wider frame of a novel or novella. In this light, it examines Byatt’s claim that her wonder tales “are modern literary stories and they do play quite consciously with a postmodern creation and recreation of old forms” through a revisitation of the wonder tale in a productive dialogue with tradition as an expanded recognition of this fertile creative-critical dialogue with regards to the significance of the wonder tale in Byatt’s fictional work. The book evinces a fresh variety of conceptions and approaches to Byatt’s wonder tales, some spanning several tales and others focussing on a specific wonder tale, all thoroughly observant of the nature and workings of the relationship between story or novel and genre or tale, and theoretically informed by innovative critical approaches.

Irish poet and mythologist Ella Young recounts 14 age-old yarns of ghosts, banshees, haunted castles, and mischievous sprites. Imaginatively illustrated by noted Irish artist and patriot Maud Gonne, these exciting narratives of magical doings in the twilit world of Celtic legend will enchant readers of all ages. The tales include "The Earth-Shapers," "The Spear of Victory," "The Cow of Plenty," "The Great Battle," "The Golden Fly," "The Children of Lir," and eight others, all abounding in the sly charm, whimsy, and flights of fancy that give Celtic folklore its special appeal.

Once Upon a Time… What a magical phrase that opens up a story to wonder and adventure. The Wonder Tales Volume One is a collection of all ages fantastical fables that are set in a fantasy world of Once Upon a Time, in a Land Far, Far Away known as the Ninth Kingdom. It is a world of magic, of wonder, of vain Kings, noble Heroes, beautiful Princesses, Pirates, evil Witches, scary Monsters and one very unique and smart talking Horse… The Wonder Tales Volume One, The Archer, the Horse and Other Tales collects together the first six Wonder Tales. The Archer, the Horse and the Princess The Archer, the Horse and the Golden Braid The Daughter of Frost The Archer and the Flying Pirate Ship The Girl and the Troll The Archer, the Horse and the Forgotten Quest Bonus story – I Am Wolf Read these tales to your children, or you can let them explore the wonder of reading for themselves with these magical yarns of pure imagination.