George MacDonald - Complete Fairy Tales, The - 4
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:43 am
Complete Fairy Tales, The
Possibly the language and era in which the tales in this book was written effected my enjoyment of this book. There were some tales in it that I did like, for example, The History of Photogen and Nycteris was quite good actually. Overall however, I found most of the tales to be preachy and in effect little more than sermons dressed up as fairy tales. This makes sense since the author, George MacDonald, was a Christian minister, but understanding in this case did not increase my enjoyment.
On a positive note, the tales are very well written. The introduction also contains some very good insights by the author about writing and fairy tales in general that I found interesting. I do not dispute that this is an important and influential work, I just did not find the majority of the book to be entertaining.
For those that enjoy reading the classics, don't let my review put you off. I am judging this book entirely by my enjoyment of it, not by its literary merit. I would say that it would be worth your time to give it a shot. You may find it much more rewarding than I did.
Have you read this book? Click here to rate it!
Possibly the language and era in which the tales in this book was written effected my enjoyment of this book. There were some tales in it that I did like, for example, The History of Photogen and Nycteris was quite good actually. Overall however, I found most of the tales to be preachy and in effect little more than sermons dressed up as fairy tales. This makes sense since the author, George MacDonald, was a Christian minister, but understanding in this case did not increase my enjoyment.
On a positive note, the tales are very well written. The introduction also contains some very good insights by the author about writing and fairy tales in general that I found interesting. I do not dispute that this is an important and influential work, I just did not find the majority of the book to be entertaining.
For those that enjoy reading the classics, don't let my review put you off. I am judging this book entirely by my enjoyment of it, not by its literary merit. I would say that it would be worth your time to give it a shot. You may find it much more rewarding than I did.
Have you read this book? Click here to rate it!