Reviews

Irish Fairy Tales Illustrated by James Stephens

lilijeee's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

jaskovivich's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

hstapp's review against another edition

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2.0

This book started out being a continuous narrative of Irish folk lore. Tales that are not continuous themselves. I thought the attempt was interesting, but then he gave it up and said yeah these next stories were just told by Finn's son because he spent a lot of time in faery and that's how he knows them, okay? Then those stories didn't make sense in that context either. So this was disappointing. As far as the stories I know go, they were told faithfully to the originals. One of the other problems with the book, is that it does not tell you what the sources are for the stories, so that if you are interested in the originals of these stories you will have to find some other means of tracking them down.

erinjpoulin's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This book has a pretty cover, but half the contents are so dull that it's nearly unreadable. 

kermittuesday's review against another edition

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3.0

A bit confusing, but I suppose a lot of old timey fairy tales are.

absentminded_reader's review against another edition

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3.0

This was a fascinating collection of fairy tales, if a bit uneven. I didn't expect the stories to be paced according to modern sensibilities, but neither did I expect them to be so witty. That was a pleasant surprise. Most of the stories were from the Fionn Cycle and referenced Fionn often. Sometimes these tales dragged for me, especially when focusing on battle prowess. However, there were enough tales involving the lords and ladies of Faerie and the humans who outwitted them to balance things for me.

"The Birth of Bran" was my favorite by far, and "The Little Brawl at Allen" was my least, though "The Boyhood of Fionn" ran a very close second.

Mostly, I loved the language. So clever and entertaining even after a century has passed. I featured some choice passages on my blog, which I invite you to read: http://thesplinteredmind.blogspot.com/2010/07/lovely-language.html