Elizabethan tales,

by Edward Joseph Harrington O'Brien

317 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1971

About the author

Edward Joseph Harrington O'Brien (1890-1941) was an American author, poet, editor and anthologist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Boston College and Harvard University. He was noted for compiling and editing an annual collection of The Best Short Stories by American authors at the beginning of the twentieth-century, and also a series of The Best Short Stories by British authors. They proved to be highly influential and popular. He was also a noted author, his works including White Fountains (1917) and The Forgotten Threshold (1918).

Reviews

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice collection of Elizabethan-era short stories - some original, some altered versions of classical tales. Includes a lot of 16th century tropes: twins changing places, girls dressing as boys, insolent or loyal servants, clever rogues, bizarre murder schemes, misers and cuckolds, improbable coincidences, et al. Three inspired some of Shakespeare's plays (or cribbed the same source material) - Tereus and Progne (Titus Andronicus), Apolonius and Silla (Twelfth Night), and Promos and Cassandra (Measure for Measure). The stories are all very readable even though the editor left the language unaltered and just brought the spelling under control. 3.5 stars.