The Faeries

Terry Jones, Brian Froud (Illustrator)

Synopsis
The former member of Monty Python's Flying Circus presents a journal of fairy research by Quentin Cottingham that attempts to analyze the protoplasmic nature of fairy stains. 60,000 first printing.

Book Description
A complete guide to fairy lore from the Middle Ages to the present. Both an anthology of fairy tales and a reference work with essays about the fairy economy, food, sports, powers and more.

From Kirkus Reviews , November 1, 1997
In her first book, Williams has gathered from around the world eight tales about fairies, those sprites of woodland, field, hill, and stream who have served as guides and mentors to humans regarding questions of proper behavior and natural harmonies. She includes stories about France's ``Fairy of the Meadows,'' who has advice on the perils of greed and the keeping of promises; China's ``Spirit of the Herbs,'' who counsels Chun Tao on curing a plague sweeping her land; Ireland's ``Fairy Queen,'' who tells Connla and Nora their destinies; and other equally extraordinary creatures from England and Japan, and from the Algonquin, Hindu, and Ojibwa traditions. Williams has chosen wisely, not only for the quality of the stories, but for making plain the universal appeal of fairies, despite their varied functions in disparate cultures. Newcomer Barrett takes a much softer approach to fairies in illustrations that are uniformly mawkish, and don't convey the bite, fear, or melancholy that gives the tales their crackle. Booktalk this one--an unusually small typeface may put off children drawn to the subject. (notes) (Folklore. 9-12) (Book-of-the-Month Club selection) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Horn Book
This thoughtful collection includes eight elegant retellings of fairy stories from a wide range of countries and cultures, including India, China, Ireland, and France. The illustrations, however, are overly fussy, and the print is small and difficult to read. Adults will appreciate the source notes and section on airy flora,but the stories themselves will hook young listeners. -- Copyright © 1998 The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.

Janet Bord

Synopsis
Hordes of tiny people playing at a spot in Wales called "Fairies Bog" . . . an impossible tiny shoe found in Ireland . . . fairy dust discovered on Mount Shasta, California . . . the wondrous sighting of a winged woman inside a rose. These and many more astounding accounts are offered in the collection of spell-binding accounts.

Synopsis
The long-awaited follow-up to Peter Tompkins's bestseller THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS is an astonishing account of how spiritualists and scientists alike are revealing that the physical world teems with nature spirits. In a dramatic meeting of New Science and New Age, Tompkins's new book is sure to radically transform how readers perceive and treat the natural world around them. Index. 20 photos & drawings.

From the Publisher
In his long-awaited follow-up to the No.1 New York Times bestseller The Secret Life of Plants, Peter Tompkins presents the brilliant and lively world of nature spirits -- animate powers that are beyond our ordinary reality. Experienced most by those societies and individuals closest to nature, gnomes, fairies, nymphs and fire spirits inhabit countless myths, legends and religions worldwide.

In this dramatic combination of New Science and esoteric religious and philosophical wisdom, Tompkins draws from the recorded accounts of the visions of clairvoyants and shamans dating from the ancient mysteries, passed on through Hidus, Persians, Chaldeans, Pythagoreans, Pharaonic, Egyptians, Gnostics, neo-Platonists, Kabbalists and Rosicrucians down to the theosophists and anthroposophists of today. To these are added recent studies by naturalists and scientists that support the view that nature spirits are, in fact, not only real, but crucial transformers and manipulators of primordial energy within the natural world.

A century ago theosophists using yogic powers accurately described the subatomic composition of all known chemical elements (and several as yet undiscovered by science) down to the level of quarks and beyond, descriptions since validated by nuclear physicists. Why not, argues Tompkins, give credence to the minute descriptions of the world of nature spirits provided by the same theosophists and anthropologists down to the details of their habits and essential functions, and upward through the spiritual hierarchies from which they derive?

"Walking through the woods I do not see spirits, but I sense them all around." According to Tompkins, they develop the growth in plants, assist in the rhythms of nature and are intermediaries between humans and the world we live in. Assuming that the actions of these beings are fundamental to nature laws, Tompkins says it should be possible to "integrate [our] efforts with theirs and to lead this planet back to its proper state as a Garden of Eden, thriving and healthy." But time, he reminds us, is running out -- the loss of natural ecosystems and the extinction of plant and animal species around the world is approaching catastrophic levels. Concerned ultimately with both the condition of the planet and the state of the human soul, Tompkins prescribes a cure: To develop our innate perceptions, become conscious of these spirits, and cooperate with them to heal the earth, restore nature and rediscover ourselves.