From the Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots of Our Fairy Tales

This book doesn't fit a particular category well, and might not please those looking for a rigorous scholarly exploration into fairy tales and folklore, but it was a truly delightful read, going back and forth from essays weaving personal experience with abundant fascinating facts to original versions of classic fairy tales, which were lovely unto themselves. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of reading this book, and it was one of the rare books I was sad to finish.

I loved every single thing about this book. Sara Maitland has done a marvelous job showcasing various woods in England and Scotland and linking them to the fairy tales and the fairy telling traditions of Europe. From her thoughts on the connection between landscape and form of story telling and oral tradition, to the unique artistry which which she details specific characteristics of each forest she wanders in, and her own retellings of the fairy tales of my childhood (my favorite being her version of Rumplestiltskin) I absolutely devoured every page. Highly recommended.

excellent material...just difficult to get through...very wordy...the Wisdom of Solitude so clearer and easier to read..one of my favorites

This book is a rich, beautiful exploration of our collective woods and words. Very enjoyable.

Such a brilliant book - the rewriting of the fairy tales is amazing. And generally beautifully written all through.

Interesting context and well written, a bit of a trudge for those who aren't die hard nature enthusiasts.

In GOSSIP FROM THE FOREST, Sara Maitland asserts that while many scholars study the similarities between the myths, legends, and folk tales of different cultures, not enough attention is paid to their differences, which are often influenced by the landscapes that gave them birth. Focusing on the fairytales that originated in Northern Europe, Maitland believes that: "The mysterious secrets and silences, gifts and perils of the forest are both the background to and the source of these tales." It seems apparent that GOSSIP FROM THE FOREST is a book not about generalities but about specificities and uniqueness. Each chapter explores a specific theme by recounting Maitland's own experience in a specific forest at a specific time of year, and ends with her own radical revisioning of a specific fairy story. This structure had the potential to make the overall book feel too formulaic, but the author's skill, playfulness, and unique flair for storytelling rescue it from this fate. Every chapter is so very individual and so very beautifully written that the book is never boring; instead, it is full of hidden gems and delicious surprises.GOSSIP FROM THE FOREST is a delightful mixture of the personal and the academic. In essence, it is our friend Sara Maitland telling us about her life and all the different kinds of knowledge she has collected along the way, offered in a tone of intimate and thoughtful conversation. While it is true that this book focuses on the magic and mystery of forests, it is no mere whimsical journey through folklore. It also displays a confidently knowledgeable engagement with scholarship in ecology, paleontology, psychology, anthropology, and economic history. Put bluntly, Sara Maitland really knows her stuff! But she never gets too caught up in academia, instead skipping effortlessly and even joyfully from natural history to folklore and back again, making this wandering through the woods a singularly entertaining as well as informative affair.The fairy stories Maitland deals in are the original versions (or as near as possible to them), definitely NOT the contemporary "Disneyfied" versions with which the current generation of children is most familiar. The original versions (a la the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault et al.) that GOSSIP FROM THE FOREST explores often involve children undergoing horrific and terrifying trials but always overcoming them through simple level-headedness and good sense. Maitland suggests an interesting correlation between contemporary censorship of the original fairy tales and excessive supervision and coddling of children that denies them free time in wild places like forests - time during which they can have adventures and learn self-reliance. Maitland's retellings of fairy tales at the end of each chapter are sometimes very radical retellings indeed, but always in keeping with the theme of the chapter. She says that: "The stories are so tough and shrewd formally that I can use them for anything I want - feminist revisioning, psychological exploration, malicious humour, magical realism, nature writing. They are generous, true and enchanted." Her own unique versions of the fairy stories are always thought-provoking and sometimes stunning. The story of the woodsman who saves Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf will stay with me for a long time.Maitland shows that fairy stories are inherently subversive, and I was excited to find that GOSSIP FROM THE FOREST gives credence to a concept that has long fascinated me and become the cornerstone of why I am passionate about stories: the concept that intellectually radical ideas first see the light of day not in philosophical texts but in popular tales. As Maitland says: "These are radical, not conservative, tales; stories about overcoming distressing poverty and alienation, subverting the normal social order and achieving a new life of comfort and security."The author has a very elegant turn of phrase that somehow seems to complement the beauty of the scenery in which the book is immersed. Her retellings of fairy stories exhibit a strangely endearing spectrum of language ranging from childlike innocence to adult themes and expressions. Her writing style, especially in some of the fairy stories, can be quite breathtakingly beautiful. Whether she is being humorous, frank, playful, or earnest, she wields words effortlessly, weaving them into delicate cobwebs brightly spangled with dew. One of my favorite passages reads: "She had aligned herself to the silence of the forest, the deep energetic silence of growing things, of seasons turning and of the soundless music of the stars. In spring it was lovely; in summer it was happy; in autumn it was fruitful; and in winter it was grim."As the book progresses, it becomes clear that, as if by magic, fairy stories largely evade scholarly encapsulation. Where fairytales came from, why they mean so much to us, and even how they can be defined are questions whose answers remain as stubbornly elusive as, well, fairies. GOSSIP FROM THE FOREST elegantly, thoughtfully, enchantingly shows us that: "... forests, like fairy stories, need to be chaotic - beautiful and savage, useful and wasteful, dangerous and free."

I learned something on every page -- sometimes in every paragraph. The retellings of the fairy tales are wonderful. Congratulations, Sara Maitland!