Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry ed. W. B. Yeats

I have previously tried to read and understand Yeats's mythos, but I couldn't really get into it, so I thought I would read his famous fairy tale compilation instead. Many of the tales here are familiar ones, but many are unusual, surprising and highly inventive. A few are frankly dull, mostly the ones collected in magazines in the Georgian and early Victorian era, because they indulge in extended Dickensian descriptions, instead of telling stories. What I like most about these more genuine stories is how funny they are, many of them have a very particular and lovely type of humour. I also liked the ones that involve women and fairies reforming annoying men into decent people. My favourites were definitely the four from Lady Wilde's book (that's Oscar Wilde's mother). They involve a supernatural, creepy atmosphere, mysticism, and lost souls. I think he must have learned a lot from his mother's work... I also loved the lyrical descriptions of fairies and supernatural events in Yeats's introductions to each section, I thought they were perfectly enchanting.