The Strange Story Book by Mrs. Lang: This collection of classic fairy tales and folktales offers a rich and imaginative exploration of the world of myth and folklore. With its engaging storytelling and vivid imagery, "The Strange Story Book" is a must-read for fans of fantasy and children's literature. Key Aspects of the Book "The Strange Story Book": Fairy Tales: The book is a collection of classic fairy tales and folktales from around the world, showcasing the diversity and richness of the folk tale tradition. Engaging Storytelling: The book is filled with imaginative and engaging stories, transporting readers to magical worlds of wonder and mystery. Vivid Imagery: The book offers vivid and evocative descriptions of the natural world, adding richness and depth to the storytelling. Mrs. Lang was the pen name of Leonora Blanche Lang, a British author and translator who lived from 1851 to 1933. She was a leading figure in the literary and cultural scene of her day, known for her scholarship and her commitment to the study of fairy tales and folklore. "The Strange Story Book" is one of her most famous works.
A collection of stories compiled by the widow of the renowned children's short-story collector, Andrew Lang. She describes this as the final installment of his series of fairy stories and includes some of those stories he had not included in other collections.
Praise for Elizabeth Hand: "Fiercely frightening yet hauntingly beautiful."—Tess Gerritsen, author of The Silent Girl "A sinful pleasure."—Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love No one is innocent, no one unexamined in award-winner Elizabeth Hand's new collection. From the summer isles to the mysterious people next door all the way to the odd guy one cubicle over, Hand teases apart the dark strangenesses of everyday life to show us the impossibilities, broken dreams, and improbable dreams that surely can never come true. Elizabeth Hand's novels include Shirley Jackson Award–winner Generation Loss, Mortal Love, and Available Dark.
Now as this is the very last book of all this series that began in the long long ago, perhaps you may like to hear something of the man who thought over every one of the twenty-five, for fear lest a story should creep in which he did not wish his little boys and girls to read. He was born when nobody thought of travelling in anything but a train—a very slow one—or a steamer. It took a great deal of persuasion to induce him later to get into a motor and he had not the slightest desire to go up in an aeroplane—or to possess a telephone. Somebody once told him of a little boy who, after giving a thrilling account at luncheon of how Randolph had taken Edinburgh Castle, had expressed a desire to go out and see the Museum; 'I like old things better than new,' said the child! 'I wish I knew that little boy,' observed the man. 'He would just suit me.' And that was true, for he too loved great deeds of battle and adventure as well as the curious carved and painted fragments guarded in museums which show that the lives described by Homer and the other old poets were not tales made up by them to amuse tired crowds gathered round a hall fire, but were real—real as our lives now, and much more beautiful and splendid. All beasts were his friends, just because they were beasts, unless they had been very badly brought up. He never could resist a cat, and cats, like beggars, tell each other these things and profit by them. A cat knew quite well that it had only to go on sitting for a few days outside the window where the man was writing, and that if it began to snow or even to rain, the window would be pushed up and the cat would spend the rest of its days stretched in front of the fire, with a saucer of milk beside it, and fish for every meal. But life with cats was not all peace, and once a terrible thing hap-pened when Dickon-draw-the-blade was the Puss in Possession. His master was passing through London on the way to take a journey to some beautiful old walled towns in the south of France where the English fought in the Hundred Years War, and he meant to spend a few weeks in the country along the Loire which is bound up with the memory of Joan of Arc. Unluckily, the night after he arrived from Scotland Dickon went out for a walk on the high trellis behind the house, and once there did not know how to get down again. Of course it was quite easy, and there were ropes of Virginia creeper to help, but Dickon lost his presence of mind, and instead of doing anything sensible only stood and shrieked, while his master got ladders and steps and clambered about in the dark and in the cold, till he put Dickon on the ground again. Then Dickon's master went to bed, but woke up so ill that he was obliged to do without the old towns, and go when he was better to a horrid place called Cannes, all dust and tea-parties.
This book addresses the claim that an American antebellum era anti-African reading of "the curse of Canaan" story originated in rabbinic literature. By tracing the curse of Canaan's history of interpretation from the beginning of the Common Era to 1865, with particular emphasis on the neglected medieval period, this work examines this long-held false claim. Although Jewish readings of the curse of Canaan appear in medieval Christian commentaries, no Jewish references to skin color are repeated in Christian exegesis. Therefore, the book argues that the anti-African antebellum reading develops in response both to abolitionism and the biblical text's establishment of a social hierarchy that divides humankind into slaves and masters. The pro-slavery reading is an extension of Christian allegorical exegesis of the curse of Canaan, in which Shem, Ham, and Japheth represented different groups of people depending upon the interpreter's historical context, usually Jewish Christians, Jews or Christian heretics, and Gentile Christians respectively. Southerners and their allies simply changed the typology, making Shem the ancestor of brown people, Ham the ancestor of black people due to a reading of his genealogy in Genesis 10, and Japheth the ancestor of white people. The new typology justified African slavery as a divinely ordained and sanctioned economic system, just as the old typology justified Christian supersessionism. Book jacket.
When Linda boarded the train that would take her to London and freedom, she was penniless and alone. A polite offer of help from the stranger in the seat opposite was the last thing she expected. Life with Rowley Frobisher was everything she had ever dreamed of: fast, sophisticated – and expensive. In a few months the rough country girl had changed beyond recognition. But then Rowley has a fatal heart attack – and once again Linda must take desperate action to survive.
