Reading Notes: More English Fairy Tales, Part A

 Week 13

Wow! I can't get enough of the "English Fairy Tales" by Joseph Jacobs. This is notes from the second edition. I found the layout of these tales to be very similar. They were also very creative and detailed in terms of interactions with other characters and the places where these stories took place. I definitely saw ties to stories I grew up reading, but I enjoyed these because they are a little darker and have obscure endings. 

(Source: The Golden Ball)

The first story that caught my attention was "The Golden Ball" because it was completely different from what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be a princess story with the event kind of "ball", but rather it was an actual golden ball. I thought the language and how it created the scenes was very interesting. This story had the same language style as "Tit Tot" but other stories in this collection are written normal. It also still followed that idea of a riddle towards the end when people come and go and the last one ends up saving her life. 

In the story "Tattercoats" I was drawn in from the start. I thought the way the story got to the point in the beginning was a nice way to catch the readers attention. I also thought the story was set up well and quickly too. The descriptions of places and feelings are depicted so well that it create the image and the scene of how the reader should feel. I immediately felt sadness, loneliness, and anger from the main character. This definitely seemed very similar to Cinderella. I liked how it was still different and how the man saw the woman in her "rags" and still insisted she be his wife. 

These were personally my favorite stories from this section. the others I found to be good but I really enjoyed reading Tattercoats. I think If I do a story I would want it to be something similar to that.