Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Counterpoint (2012), Edition: 1St Edition, 288 pages
Description
Fairy tales are one of our earliest cultural forms, and forests one of our most ancient landscapes. Both evoke similar sensations: At times they are beautiful and magical, at others spooky and sometimes horrifying. Maitland argues that the terrain of these fairy tales are intimately connected to the mysterious secrets and silences, gifts and perils. With each chapter focusing on a different story and a different forest visit, Maitland offers a complex history of forests and how they shape the themes of fairy tales we know best. She offers a unique analysis of famous stories including Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretal, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumplestiltskin, and Sleeping Beauty. Maitland uses fairy tales to explore how nature itself informs our imagination, and she guides the reader on a series of walks through northern Europe's best forests to explore both the ecological history of forests and the roots of fairy tales. In addition to the twelve modern re-tellings of these traditional fairy tales, she includes beautiful landscape photographs taken by her son as he joined her on these long walks. Beautifully written and impeccably researched, Maitland has infused new life into tales we've always thought we've known.… (more)
Media reviews
Sara Maitland's book is both an exploration of where fairy stories come from culturally and socially, and of the locations where they were born: forests. "Forests to… northern European peoples were dangerous and generous, domestic and wild, beautiful and terrible. And the forests were the terrain
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out of which fairy stories… evolved". Show Less
Fairytales, Sara Maitland thinks, arose from forests. Many of the stories gathered in the 19th century by the Brothers Grimm are set in woods and populated by forest dwellers, be they woodcutters, witches or wolves. Their history is intertwined and so, potentially, is their future. Both, Maitland
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argues, are under threat, jeopardised by our increasingly urban and technologically mediated lives.
In Gossip from the Forest she journeys, fairytale-like, deep into the woods, taking 12 walks in 12 British forests (one a month, over the course of a year). As she travels around the country, wandering the rides of the New Forest, hunting down relics of ancient woodland in Dulwich and meeting the last surviving Free Miners in the Forest of Dean, she muses on fairytales, using them as a way of understanding the mysterious space forests occupy within our psyches. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Nickelini
This book is divided by month, beginning in March and ending in February, and each month is made up of an extended essay, followed by a fairy tale retelling. The author visited one forest in England or Scotland every month, and her essays meandered like hikers lost in a proverbial forest . . .
The fairy tales were fun and interesting, and tended to tell the story from an unexpected viewpoint. For example, in "Hansel and Gretel," they are now in their 50s and look back on their childhood. "Sleeping Beauty" is told in 100 short dreams.
Rating: I'm a lover of forests, and I find the idea of forests that people have lived with for thousands of years incredibly interesting. I also love fairy tales. So I liked this a lot. It's right up my tree.
The book had more than a few problems though -- first, there where very few illustrations, and this just cried out to be heavily illustrated. There were a few photos, but they were all boring and extremely poor quality black and white. Full colour was needed for this. Also, the book desperately needed maps. I also think it needed a separate introduction to outline what all of thees details were supposed to add up to. This info was buried in the first month (March), but a crisper structure would have helped. There are lots of end notes, and they held all sorts of interesting detail, but it was cumbersome flipping back to it, so they should have been footnotes instead (or sidebar information if they had hired the book designer this material deserved.) Finally, Gossip from the Forest would have benefited tremendously from an index--so many little tidbits of information, I don't know how I'll ever find anything if I want to go back and look up what she had to say about "mushrooms," "William the Conquer and the beginning of royal forests," or "pollarding," for example.
In conclusion, the material was great, but the presentation left everything to be desired.
Recommended for: Definitely not for everyone--even for the reader who is interested in forests and fairy tales, there's just so much here and it's sort of a mash. I can see many readers losing patience with this one. But if you're anything like me, you'll love it.
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topics went from sciency discussions on specific types of trees, to folk legends, to social history, to forest management practices, to discussion on the origins of fairy tales, to natural history, and a lot in between. Maitland focuses on the Teutonic roots of Britain and tied it into the stories recorded by the Brothers Grimm. Although she goes off on countess tangled tangents, her main these seems to concern the symbiotic relationship between people and forests and the symbiotic relationship between forests and fairy tales.The fairy tales were fun and interesting, and tended to tell the story from an unexpected viewpoint. For example, in "Hansel and Gretel," they are now in their 50s and look back on their childhood. "Sleeping Beauty" is told in 100 short dreams.
Rating: I'm a lover of forests, and I find the idea of forests that people have lived with for thousands of years incredibly interesting. I also love fairy tales. So I liked this a lot. It's right up my tree.
The book had more than a few problems though -- first, there where very few illustrations, and this just cried out to be heavily illustrated. There were a few photos, but they were all boring and extremely poor quality black and white. Full colour was needed for this. Also, the book desperately needed maps. I also think it needed a separate introduction to outline what all of thees details were supposed to add up to. This info was buried in the first month (March), but a crisper structure would have helped. There are lots of end notes, and they held all sorts of interesting detail, but it was cumbersome flipping back to it, so they should have been footnotes instead (or sidebar information if they had hired the book designer this material deserved.) Finally, Gossip from the Forest would have benefited tremendously from an index--so many little tidbits of information, I don't know how I'll ever find anything if I want to go back and look up what she had to say about "mushrooms," "William the Conquer and the beginning of royal forests," or "pollarding," for example.
In conclusion, the material was great, but the presentation left everything to be desired.
Recommended for: Definitely not for everyone--even for the reader who is interested in forests and fairy tales, there's just so much here and it's sort of a mash. I can see many readers losing patience with this one. But if you're anything like me, you'll love it.
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LibraryThing member jen.e.moore
I wanted to like this book - on paper, I should like this book - but in practice I'm finding it dull and slow going. On the chance it's me and not the book, I'll give it another try sometime in the future.
LibraryThing member PDCRead
In this book Maitland is looking at the role that woods and forests have played in our national identity, primarily through stories, by also as a source of employment, fuel and food.
the book is split into 12 chapters, with 12 sub chapters. Each chapter describes a visit to a different wood or
The small sub chapters are modern interpretations of well known fairy stories that she herself has written.
I really enjoyed the main part of the book about the forests and the history and cultural significance that trees have in our national psyche. Less enjoyable were the fairy tales. She speaks in the final chapter about children and new citizens being given a little book of classic fairy tales, and I feel that if she was going to include these she would have been better including the originals.
the book is split into 12 chapters, with 12 sub chapters. Each chapter describes a visit to a different wood or
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forest that she goes to. She visits these woods all around the country, one each month, as they are significant in some way, either for the variety of the species, or they historical or cultural significance. In these she explores the links that woods have with fairy stories, and the types of characters in these stories.The small sub chapters are modern interpretations of well known fairy stories that she herself has written.
I really enjoyed the main part of the book about the forests and the history and cultural significance that trees have in our national psyche. Less enjoyable were the fairy tales. She speaks in the final chapter about children and new citizens being given a little book of classic fairy tales, and I feel that if she was going to include these she would have been better including the originals.
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LibraryThing member bookwyrmm
Interesting look at the forests of Britain and the history of fairy tales with some original retellings.
Awards
Mythopoeic Awards (Finalist — Myth and Fantasy Studies — 2015)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2012
Physical description
288 p.; 9.1 inches
ISBN
1619020149 / 9781619020146
Local notes
Minimal pencil underlining
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