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Rating: 
Summary: Enchanting and trustworthy account of British fairy lore.
Review: An enchanting book with a great deal of curious and interesting information. It's written with enough clarity and charm to appeal to nonspecialists, though it is also an authoritative and trustworthy resource for scholars. Investigating everything from the survival of ancient beliefs (especially in the Celtic fringes of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland) through the work of anthropologists and folklorists to the cute designs for nursery wallpaper, Carole Silver demonstrates the ways in which the widespread nineteenth-century interest in fairy lore exposes fears and fantasies close to the Victorian unconscious. The author draws on an extraordinary range of sources: newspaper accounts, legal cases, theology, linguistics, the new social sciences of anthropology, ethnology and psychology, and texts ranging from the essays of Thomas Carlyle to the literary fairy tales we still read to our children. She explores in depth the belief in changeling children, the rendering of goblins and other dark primitive creatures, and the gender and power relations revealed in stories of fairy brides. This is real scholarship to illuminate the current and continuing popularity of fairies and their stories. -- Sally Mitchell, Professor of English and Women's Studies, Temple University
Rating:
Summary: A must-buy!
Review: Enchanting, illuminating, and clear-headed, Carole Silver's study of the Victorians and their fairy obsession is a warehouse of treasures for anyone interested in fairy lore and the humans who hoard it. A born storyteller and endlessly smart, Silver brings to life the ideas and images that made up what we know of Victorian culture, showing how their reality and unreality differed from our own.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating read
Review: In this strangely different work, Professor Silver examines the British fascination with Faeries and other imaginary creatures from 1798 to 1923. She examines such sources as literature, fairy tale collections, anthropologists, newspapers, ballet, and a host of others. The book is encyclopedic in its reach, covering dwarves, mermaids, fairies and more. The author traces the evolution of fairy lore, and how its changes reflect changes in Victorian attitudes. She shows how fairy concepts reflected Victorian views on women, race, childhood, industrialism, and more.This book is a fascinating read. In particular, the fairy brides/gender and goblins/race chapters were absolutely fascinating, and impossible to put down. My one complaint is that the hardbound book was printed in a very small font, which made for some irritating reading sessions. That said, though, this is a very good book.
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting and trustworthy account of British fairy lore.
Review: This is an interesting study of a subject which has perhaps less attention than it deserves. In spite of the exceedingly ill-mannered review in the New York Times, the contention that at least some people in Victorian times believed in fairies is a perfectly valid one; after all, people today, many of them quite intelligent and well educated, hold similar beliefs. The author is to be commended for largely refraining from the cynicism about other peoples' experiences which mars too much academic work in fairylore and related fields. That said, it isn't quite all it could be. References to Antonio Gramsci's writings were not properly cited, making it difficult to track down the specific translation and edition used. Most importantly, the author failed to make her work fully accessible to those of us who work in related fields; particularly irritating was her use (outside period quotations) of mutilated anglicisations of words from the various Celtic languages. While these barbarous concoctions may have been in common use in Victorian literature, they obscure the connection of this literature to the folkloric source material. Embedded in modern prose, they are not only ugly and confusing, but border on the the offensive. Modern scholars of Victorian ethnography generally use accepted present day romanisations in their own writing, retaining the crude phonetic attempts of the nineteenth century only in quotes. Surely the Irish, Scots, and Welsh nations deserve the same basic courtesy as the Arab, Chinese, and Bantu peoples.
Rating:
Summary: Not all it could be, but an interesting work
Review: This is an interesting study of a subject which has perhaps less attention than it deserves. In spite of the exceedingly ill-mannered review in the New York Times, the contention that at least some people in Victorian times believed in fairies is a perfectly valid one; after all, people today, many of them quite intelligent and well educated, hold similar beliefs. The author is to be commended for largely refraining from the cynicism about other peoples' experiences which mars too much academic work in fairylore and related fields. That said, it isn't quite all it could be. References to Antonio Gramsci's writings were not properly cited, making it difficult to track down the specific translation and edition used. Most importantly, the author failed to make her work fully accessible to those of us who work in related fields; particularly irritating was her use (outside period quotations) of mutilated anglicisations of words from the various Celtic languages. While these barbarous concoctions may have been in common use in Victorian literature, they obscure the connection of this literature to the folkloric source material. Embedded in modern prose, they are not only ugly and confusing, but border on the the offensive. Modern scholars of Victorian ethnography generally use accepted present day romanisations in their own writing, retaining the crude phonetic attempts of the nineteenth century only in quotes. Surely the Irish, Scots, and Welsh nations deserve the same basic courtesy as the Arab, Chinese, and Bantu peoples.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Victorian Obessions (And Present-Day Fears)
Review: This is the best serious book on the subject of fairies and the history of fairy lore to be published since Patrick Harpur's broader, belief-based study, Daimonic Reality. Silver's thesis, which is not absolutely original, states that the Victorian love of fairy-themed plays, stories, paintings, and operettas actually reflected several dark and ugly obsessions for which the fairies were perfect symbols and potent conduits. These obsessions included mistrust of female sexuality and independence, fear of racial contamination, and a horror for birth deformity and child-stealing. For Silver, all Victorian thought and feeling on and for fairies had a decidedly downward pull. The fairies were not only nothing to scoff at, they were something to actively fear. Not all chapters are equally good, but Silver has a keen methodical writing style and an abundance of information at her fingertips which she clearly has a thorough understanding of. Especially satisfying throughout are Silver's citings of fairy-related stories by neglected authors Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Fiona MacLeod and others; Silver briefly summarizes each story and places it within its sociological and historical context, with which you may or may not agree. The only problem with Silver's work is the relentless political correctness which rears its head like a bright red flag whenever she approaches a 'sensitive' issue. Alas, this is the plague of most current academic writing, and I hold Silver to a higher standard. It is almost impossible to believe that 25 years ago she would have underscored so heavily the same objections she does here. Is it really so difficult to believe that when pygmy tribes were discoverd in Africa, some Victorians thought them less than human? Instead of giving those scientists credit for the great and ground-breaking work they did in their field and allowing for-or at least rationally acknowledging--the genuine ignorance and credulity of their time, Silver approaches the whole nasty business with an "I shudder to think" attitude which seems like historical stupidity itself. The same applies to her awkward chapter on swan maidens. She writes defensively, as if her mentioning and then elaborating on the misogyny of the Victorian era will be construed as her own misogyny, merely because she (a woman, no less) is writing about it. Clearly she's writing out of fear (one of the book's themes, her own seems lost upon her) or stupidity, and I'd rather think the former, sad as it is. Though it does take itself and its subject too seriously on occasion, this is the best book we're likely to see on the subject for some time. All students of folklore and myth will find it interesting and highly readable, if its uniformly dark conclusions not always persuasive.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Victorian Obessions (And Present-Day Fears)
Review: This is the best serious book on the subject of fairies and the history of fairy lore to be published since Patrick Harpur's broader, belief-based study, Daimonic Reality. Silver's thesis, which is not absolutely original, states that the Victorian love of fairy-themed plays, stories, paintings, and operettas actually reflected several dark and ugly obsessions for which the fairies were perfect symbols and potent conduits. These obsessions included mistrust of female sexuality and independence, fear of racial contamination, and a horror for birth deformity and child-stealing. For Silver, all Victorian thought and feeling on and for fairies had a decidedly downward pull. The fairies were not only nothing to scoff at, they were something to actively fear. Not all chapters are equally good, but Silver has a keen methodical writing style and an abundance of information at her fingertips which she clearly has a thorough understanding of. Especially satisfying throughout are Silver's citings of fairy-related stories by neglected authors Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Fiona MacLeod and others; Silver briefly summarizes each story and places it within its sociological and historical context, with which you may or may not agree. The only problem with Silver's work is the relentless political correctness which rears its head like a bright red flag whenever she approaches a 'sensitive' issue. Alas, this is the plague of most current academic writing, and I hold Silver to a higher standard. It is almost impossible to believe that 25 years ago she would have underscored so heavily the same objections she does here. Is it really so difficult to believe that when pygmy tribes were discoverd in Africa, some Victorians thought them less than human? Instead of giving those scientists credit for the great and ground-breaking work they did in their field and allowing for-or at least rationally acknowledging--the genuine ignorance and credulity of their time, Silver approaches the whole nasty business with an "I shudder to think" attitude which seems like historical stupidity itself. The same applies to her awkward chapter on swan maidens. She writes defensively, as if her mentioning and then elaborating on the misogyny of the Victorian era will be construed as her own misogyny, merely because she (a woman, no less) is writing about it. Clearly she's writing out of fear (one of the book's themes, her own seems lost upon her) or stupidity, and I'd rather think the former, sad as it is. Though it does take itself and its subject too seriously on occasion, this is the best book we're likely to see on the subject for some time. All students of folklore and myth will find it interesting and highly readable, if its uniformly dark conclusions not always persuasive.
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