Scan barcode
jeregenest's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating discussion of supernatural creatures in the Victorian age. Draws widely and is incredibly thorough.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition
3.0
In honor of Spain winning the World Cup I will write this review entirely in Spanish.
Wait, I don't know Spanish. Sigh.
Okay, go to one of those translator page things, and plug this in.
Silver's book is a good in depth look at the view that the Victorians had about fairy, folklore, and how such topics related to current events. I will say that the first chapter was a tough read. It was rather dull, but the infromation is needed for later in the book. The themes of the last chapter were detail with in a less boring way by [a:Diane Purkiss|117573|Diane Purkiss|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207164609p2/117573.jpg] in her [b:At the Bottom of the Garden: A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Nymphs, and Other Troublesome Things|1793710|At the Bottom of the Garden A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Nymphs, and Other Troublesome Things|Diane Purkiss|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1188428597s/1793710.jpg|1792709]. Overall, however, this is a good read for anyone interested in fairies or the Victorians.
In particular, Silver's use of the fairy bride story and how it was related to the developing woman's rights movement was fasinating to read. She connects the swan maiden to the idea divorce and whether or not women should have that right. Additionally, she ties the ideas of dwarfs (dwarves) to the European exploration of Africia.
Wait, I don't know Spanish. Sigh.
Okay, go to one of those translator page things, and plug this in.
Silver's book is a good in depth look at the view that the Victorians had about fairy, folklore, and how such topics related to current events. I will say that the first chapter was a tough read. It was rather dull, but the infromation is needed for later in the book. The themes of the last chapter were detail with in a less boring way by [a:Diane Purkiss|117573|Diane Purkiss|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207164609p2/117573.jpg] in her [b:At the Bottom of the Garden: A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Nymphs, and Other Troublesome Things|1793710|At the Bottom of the Garden A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Nymphs, and Other Troublesome Things|Diane Purkiss|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1188428597s/1793710.jpg|1792709]. Overall, however, this is a good read for anyone interested in fairies or the Victorians.
In particular, Silver's use of the fairy bride story and how it was related to the developing woman's rights movement was fasinating to read. She connects the swan maiden to the idea divorce and whether or not women should have that right. Additionally, she ties the ideas of dwarfs (dwarves) to the European exploration of Africia.
mburnamfink's review against another edition
4.0
Strange and Secret People is solid piece of scholarship concerning the relationship between Victorian folklorists and fairies. Silver discusses what fairies represented in the immense intellectual turmoil of the period. The chapters cover topics like the creation of a British national culture palatable to the native elites, rather than imported French or German stories, as well as fairies as representations of anxieties about female sexuality, the lower classes, disabled children, and the pains of the Industrial Revolution. Perhaps the most interesting parts where the discussions of Darwin and the pseudo-science of fairies, and various attempts to link fairies to either a vanished race of pygmies similar to the tribes encountered in Africa and Asia, or the future spiritual evolution of the human race. Science-as-it-could-have been, rather than science-as-it-is. The final chapter concerns the fairies as always vanishing but never quite gone, and the way that they were finally relegated to nursery tales and robbed of all power.
I can’t fault Silver’s scholarship; I doubt that there is a single source that she missed. On the other hand, I think this book could’ve used more theoretical grounding, and more of a focus on the Victorian folklorists who recorded these primary sources. There’s too much analysis of the Victorian’s psychosexual hangups, and not enough of why the Victorians thought these stories were important. A second weakness is some unclarity in this very long period, and what may have changed between early Romanticism, the heights of Imperial power, and the pseudo-science of Theosophy and other spiritual practices.
I can’t fault Silver’s scholarship; I doubt that there is a single source that she missed. On the other hand, I think this book could’ve used more theoretical grounding, and more of a focus on the Victorian folklorists who recorded these primary sources. There’s too much analysis of the Victorian’s psychosexual hangups, and not enough of why the Victorians thought these stories were important. A second weakness is some unclarity in this very long period, and what may have changed between early Romanticism, the heights of Imperial power, and the pseudo-science of Theosophy and other spiritual practices.
More...