At the Bottom of the Garden: A Dark History of Fairies,Hobgoblins,Nymphs,and Other Troublesome Things FROM THE PUBLISHER
"At the Bottom of the Garden is a history of fairies from the ancient world to the present. Steeped in folklore and fantasy, it is a rich and diverse account of the part that fairies and fairy stories have played in culture and society." "Dianne Purkiss explains in this engrossing history that ancient fairies were born of fear: fear of the dark, of death, and of other great rites of passage, birth and sex. To understand the importance of these early fairies to pre-industrial peoples, we need to recover that sense of dread."--BOOK JACKET.
FROM THE CRITICS
Choice
Fascinating.....Rigorously researched.....Highly recommended.
Publishers Weekly
Anyone who has ever thought that fairies are 'tiresome little wingy
thingies who are always good' will be swiftly disabused of that notion
by this historical study. A British author (The Witch in History) and
currently a fellow and tutor at Keble College, Oxford, Purkiss has
prodigiously researched her subject, producing a scholarly overview of
the role that fairies have played in culture from the past to the
present.
Booknews
The pastel Disney world of tiny gauzy-winged creatures who make wishes and dreams come true is predated by a darker, denser world of gorgons, goblins and the gellos, warns Purkiss (English, Oxford U.). She begins her account in ancient civilization of the Mediterranean, and chronicles centuries of abducting babies, killing children and virgins, seducing young men, and finally alien abductions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Choice
Fascinating. . . Rigorously researched, the book is written in a
style that is unorthodox for academic studies, and hence is at once
disarming and disconcerting.
Home
