Tales of Folk and Fairies

by Katharine Pyle

Katharine Pyle's masterly retelling of well-loved folk tales from around the world.

The Meester Stoorworm - A Story from Scotland
Jean Malin and the Bull Man - A Louisiana Tale
The Widow’s Son - A Scandinavian Tale
The Wise Girl - A Serbian Story
The History of Ali Cogia - From the Arabian Nights
Oh! - A Cossack Story
The Talking Eggs - A Story from Louisiana
The Frog Princess - A Russian Story
The Magic Turban, the Magic Sword and the Magic Carpet - A Persian Story
The Three Silver Citrons - A Persian Story
The Magic Pipe - A Norse Tale
The Triumph of Truth - A Hindu Story
Life’s Secret - A Story of Bengal
Dame Pridgett and the Fairies

Genres: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Ebooks

306 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Katharine Pyle was an American artist, poet, and children's writer. She was educated at the Women's Industrial School and the Drexel Institute, then studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women and the New York Art Students' League. She lived in Wilmington her whole life, except for several years in Boston and New York in the 1890s and 1900s.

Over the course of her career she wrote over 30 books and illustrated the books of others. Her art and poetry appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, St. Nicholas, The Circle, Shooter's Guide, The Saturday Evening Post, Metropolitan Magazine, Youth's Companion, Woman's Home Companion, Harper's Bazaar, and Harper's Young People. She co-authored a collection of 24 whimsical stories entitled The Wonder Clock (1888), with her brother Howard Pyle. Her art was also exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.

The Delaware Art Museum has a substantial collection of her manuscripts.

Her mother was author M.C. Pyle. Her sister-in-law was Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle.

Librarian note: This author's name is often misspelled as Katherine.

Reviews

[Jessica Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not bad, but it's not great either

All the tales can be found elsewhere; such as the multi-colored fairy books of Andrew Lang. The prose isn't superior. I hope the illustrations (which we kindle folks can't see.) make up for it all. But I doubt it.

[Janelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The more I listened to this book the more my rating dropped. I just got sick of the repetition of themes and storylines. Even though they were from different countries there were too many stories of beautiful people falling instantly in love with each other. I was familiar with several of the stories, having read them in other anthologies. I skipped one of these, plus another story that I found depressing.
This book wasn’t all bad, I think my main problem was listening to it too quickly. I think if I’d just read it occasionally I would have overlooked the things that bothered me.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of stories was so well sourced! I would say the variety was amazing, but I didn't hear any Native stories from the Americas. However there were some from Louisiana, but those were not Native.
In spite of that, this book was a pleasure to read! And it's such an interesting take to see how each culture approaches fairy tales and their lessons. I especially loved the Asian tales. And it has made me want to research a good book translated into English on Asian fairy tales.
That being said, there were still some gruesome bits. But if you're looking for a varied book to read the kids, I do recommend this book! I do not find it overly or unnecessarily violent or gruesome (I'm looking at you, Grimm Brothers).
All in all, it was a perfect listen to me as I was in a time of transition when I did so. And having each chapter be its own story was exactly what I needed! I will be buying this book at some point.
9/10 recommend

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories in this book are: - The Meester Stoorworm: A Story from Scotland
- Jean Malin and the Bull-man: A Louisiana Tale
- The Widow's Son: A Scandinavian Tale
- The Wise Girl: A Serbian Story
- The History of All Cogia From the Arabian Nights
- Oh!: A Cossack Story
- The Talking Eggs: A Story from Louisiana
- The Frog Princess: A Russian Story
- The Magic Turban, The Magic Sword, and the Magic Carpet: A Persian Story
- The Three Silver Citrons: A Persian Story
- The Magic Pipe: A Norse Tale
- The Triumph of Truth: A Hindu Story
- Life's Secret: A Story of Bengal
- Dame Pridgett and the Fairies which are stories I had never heard - has an old world taste and they are real fairy tales with unkindness but good book!

[Amie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always been interested in folklore, the stories in his book are very old, its easy to tell with the way it has been formatted. I did enjoy reading them, as it gave me a window in to the stories that were shared and read over 200 years ago and some of the folklore was from other nations.

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Chantel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this book free by utilizing Librivox wherein volunteers read books that are in the public domain and listed at Project Gutenberg. The book contains fifteen different children's stories from around the world; each story stands completely on it's own. Some of the stories were just regurgitated fairy tales that have been told and told in numerous editions by various authors and others were less familiar. They were decent stories and although they were probably meant for children, adults will certainly enjoy them as well. It was nice to have a small collection of short stories to pass the time while cleaning house. Each story is about 20 minutes apiece.

Here are the titles of the stories:
01 - The Meester Stoorworm
02 - Jean Malin and the Bull-man
03 - The Widow’s Son
04 - The Wise Girl
05 - The History of Ali Cogia
06 - Oh!
07 - The Talking Eggs
08 - The Frog Princess
09 - The Magic Turban, the Magic Sword and the Magic Carpet
10 - The Three Silver Citrons
11 - The Magic Pipe
12 - The Triumph of Truth
13 - Life’s Secret
14 - Dame Pridgett and the Fairies

Here you can find them:
https://librivox.org/tales-of-folk-an...
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25913

[L. Shosty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would have been a four-star review, but the stories began to get repetitive in theme in the middle. Finished strong with a story about fairies, though. The edition I have was downloaded free as it's in the public domain. I'd definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to read some folk tales on the cheap.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good.