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26 Featured Titles

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Exam Copy
African American Folktales
Stories from Black Traditions in the New World
Written by Roger Abrahams


Format: Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: January 9, 1999
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-70539-7 (0-375-70539-2)

From the canefields of the ante-bellum South, the villages of the Caribbean islands, and the streets of contemporary inner cities, here are more than one hundred tales from an "incredibly rich and affirmative storytelling tradition" --Choice.Full of life, wisdom, and humor, these tales range from wiley tricksters to the creation of... Read more >

Exam Copy
African Folktales

Written by Roger Abrahams


Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: August 12, 1983
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-394-72117-0 (0-394-72117-9)

Selected and Retold by Roger D. Abrahams.  This collection of nearly 100 stories illuminates a vast and ancient tradition of storytelling across the African continent. Out of the deep forest and the broad savannah, from the campsites, kraals, and villages of over forty tribes, the voices of the storytellers weave imaginative myths... Read more >

Exam Copy
Norwegian Folktales

Written by Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe


Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: August 12, 1982
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-394-71054-9 (0-394-71054-1)

From the collection of Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe; Illustrated by Erik Werenskiold and Theodor Kittelsen; Translated by Pat Shaw and Carl Norman.

Long a treasure in Norway, the folk tales collected here have been acclaimed for their richness of humor, fullness of life, and depth of understanding since they... Read more >

Exam Copy
Cuentos Folkloricos Latinoamericanos
Fábulas de las tradiciones hispanas e indígenas
Edited by John Bierhorst


Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 11, 2003
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-71397-2 (0-375-71397-2)

The wisdom and artistry of Latin America’s storytellers preserve one of the world’s richest folktale traditions—combining the lore of medieval Europe, the ancient Near East, and pre-Columbian America. Among the essential characters are the quiet man’s wife who knew the Devil’s secrets, the tree daughters who robbed their father’s grave, and... Read more >

Exam Copy
Latin American Folktales
Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions
Written by John Bierhorst


Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: September 9, 2003
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-71439-9 (0-375-71439-1)

The wisdom and artistry of Latin America’s storytellers preserve one of the world’s richest folktale traditions—combining the lore of medieval Europe, the ancient Near East, and pre-Columbian America. Among the essential characters are the quiet man’s wife who knew the Devil’s secrets, the tree daughters who robbed their father’s grave, and... Read more >
Also available as an eBook.

Exam Copy
Parallel Myths

Written by J.F. Bierlein


Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
On Sale: October 11, 1994
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-345-38146-0 (0-345-38146-7)

An essential one-volume introduction to the key myths of the world's major traditions.  Explores the themes and images shared by the Greeks, Indians, Africans, Chinese, and many others.  

"Unusually accessible and useful." --William E. Paden, University of Vermont Read more >

Exam Copy
The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales

Written by The Brothers Grimm


Format: Trade Paperback, 880 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: September 12, 1976
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-0-394-70930-7 (0-394-70930-6)

However outlandish or exaggerated, fairy tales reflect the world we live in. Playful, gruesome, mysterious or sad, the emotions and experiences of fairy-tale characters are our own. In the 19th century, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm collected folk tales as part of a larger study of German culture. They believed that the... Read more >

Exam Copy
Ka
Stories of the Mind and Gods of India
Written by Roberto Calasso


Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 2, 1999
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-77547-8 (0-679-77547-1)

"A giddy invasion of stories--brilliant, enigmatic, troubling, outrageous, erotic, beautiful." --The New York Times Book Review

"So brilliant that you can't look at it anymore--and you can't look at anything else. . . . No one will read it without reward."
--The Boston Globe

With the same narrative fecundity and imaginative sympathy he brought... Read more >

Exam Copy
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

Written by Roberto Calasso


Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 8, 1994
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-73348-5 (0-679-73348-5)

With vast erudition and irresistible verve, Calasso retells the Greek mythical stories of Zeus and Europa, Theseus and Ariadne, of the birth of Athens and the fall of Troy, tracing them back along the branches of a single myth-bearing tree and rediscovering the origins of desire and strife, virginity and rape... Read more >

Exam Copy
The Norse Myths

Written by Kevin Crossley-Holland


Format: Trade Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: July 12, 1981
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-394-74846-7 (0-394-74846-8)

Here are thirty-two classic Norse myths that bring the ancient Viking world to life. Beautifully retold by Kevin Crossley-Holland, these tales vividly depict the courage, cruelty, and passions that were the hallmarks of the old Norse world.

"Crossley-Holland's beautiful retelling of tales...features Odin, Thor, the berserks, Loki, and many more fascinating figures... Read more >

Exam Copy
Legends and Tales of the American West

Written by Richard Erdoes


Format: Trade Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: September 1, 1998
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-70266-2 (0-375-70266-0)

From Davy Crockett, Wild Bill Hickok, and Calamity Jane to Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and Frank and Jesse James, here are more than 130 colorful stories of the pioneers, cowboys, outlaws, gamblers, prospectors, and lawmen who settled the wild west, creating a uniquely American hero and a fascinating folk mythology.

In... Read more >

Exam Copy
Jesus and the Lost Goddess
The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians
Written by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy


Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: October 22, 2002
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-4594-5 (1-4000-4594-0)

Why were the teachings of the original Christians brutally suppressed by the Roman Church?

• Because they portray Jesus and Mary Magdalene as mythic figures based on the Pagan Godman and Goddess
• Because they show that the gospel story is a spiritual allegory encapsulating a profound philosophy that leads to mythical enlightenment
•... Read more >

Exam Copy
Irish Folk Tales

Written by Henry Glassie


Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: February 11, 1997
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-77412-9 (0-679-77412-2)

Robust and funny, sorrowful and heroic, this collection of 125 lively tales tells the story of Ireland. Spanning the centuries from the first wars of the ancient Irish kings through the Celtic Renaissance of Yeats to our own time, they are set in cities, villages, fields and forestsfrom the wild Gaelic... Read more >

Exam Copy
The Victorian Fairy Tale Book

Written by Michael Patrick Hearn


Format: Trade Paperback, 416 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: December 3, 2002
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-71455-9 (0-375-71455-3)

From Robert Browning’s Pied Piper of Hamelin and William Makepeace Thackeray’s Rose and the Ring to Kenneth Grahame’s Reluctant Dragon and J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, here are seventeen classic stories and poems from the golden age of the English fairy tale. Some of them amuse, some enchant... Read more >

Exam Copy
Le Morte d'Arthur

Written by Sir Thomas Malory
Introduction by Elizabeth Bryan


Format: Trade Paperback, 992 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: February 22, 1999
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-75322-0 (0-375-75322-2)

With an Introduction by Elizabeth J. Bryan.

The legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table have inspired some of the greatest works of literature--from Cervantes's Don Quixote to Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Although many versions exist, Malory's stands as the classic rendition. Malory wrote the book... Read more >
Also available as an eBook and a hardcover.

Exam Copy
Trickster
AMERICAN INDIAN MYTH
Written by Paul Radin


Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Schocken
On Sale: September 13, 1987
Price: $11.96
ISBN: 978-0-8052-0351-6 (0-8052-0351-6)

Introduction by Stanley Diamond, Commentaries by Karl Kernyi and C.G. Jung. The Myth of the Trickster is one of the earliest and most universal expressions of mankind; nowhere does it survive in more starkly archaic form that in the uninhibited episodes of the Winnebago Trickster Cycle, recorded here in full. Radin... Read more >

Exam Copy
Folktales from India

Written by A.K. Ramanujan


Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: January 13, 1994
Price: $18.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-74832-8 (0-679-74832-6)

This is an enchanting collection of one hundred and ten tales translated from twenty-two different languages, by turns harrowing and comic, sardonic and allegorical, mysterious and romantic. Gods disguised as beggars and beasts; animals enacting Machiavellian intrigues; sagacious jesters and magical storytellers; wise counselors and foolish kings--all of these inhabit a... Read more >

Exam Copy
Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies

Written by Moss Roberts


Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: July 12, 1980
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-394-73994-6 (0-394-73994-9)

Translated and edited by Moss Roberts, this collection of newly translated tales opens up a magical world far from our customary haunts. Ghost stories, romances, fables, and heroic sagas: the forms are familiar, but the characters we meet surprise us at every turn. For those who know and loves the tales... Read more >

Exam Copy
Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece

Written by Gustav Schwab


Format: Trade Paperback, 768 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: October 9, 2001
Price: $21.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-71446-7 (0-375-71446-4)

From fire-stealing Prometheus to scene-stealing Helen of Troy, from Jason and his golden fleece to Oedipus and his mother, this collection of classic tales from Greek mythology demonstrates the inexhaustible vitality of a timeless cultural legacy.

Here are Icarus flying too close to the sun, mighty Hercules, Achilles and that darn heel... Read more >

Exam Copy
Life After Death
A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion
Written by Alan Segal


Format: Hardcover, 880 pages
Publisher: Doubleday Religion
On Sale: July 13, 2004
Price: $39.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-42299-4 (0-385-42299-7)

"This monumental study combines history, geography, mythology, archaeology and anthropology with biblical text analysis...[T]he erudition [Segal] displays is undoubtedly the result of a lifetime of scholarship....[An] impressive contribution to our understanding of human belief and behavior." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A magisterial work of social history, Life After Death illuminates the many... Read more >

Exam Copy
Japanese Tales

Written by Royall Tyler


Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: August 13, 2002
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-375-71451-1 (0-375-71451-0)

Here are two hundred and twenty dazzling tales from medieval Japan, tales that welcome us into a fabulous, faraway world populated by saints and scoundrels, ghosts and magical healers, and a vast assortment of deities and demons. Stories of miracles, visions of hell, jokes, fables, and legends, these tales reflect the... Read more >

Exam Copy
The Interpretation of Fairy Tales

Written by Marie-Louise Von Franz


Format: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Shambhala
On Sale: July 9, 1996
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-87773-526-7 (0-87773-526-3)

Of the various types of mythological literature, fairy tales are the simplest and purest expression of the collective unconscious and thus offers the clearest understanding of the basic patters of the human psyche. Perhaps the foremost authority on the psychological interpretation of fairy tales is Marie-Louise von Franz. In this book... Read more >

Exam Copy
Six Myths of Our Time
Little Angels, Little Monsters, Beautiful Beasts, and More
Written by Marina Warner


Format: Trade Paperback, 160 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 31, 1995
Price: $13.00
ISBN: 978-0-679-75924-9 (0-679-75924-7)

In these six essays, adapted from the BBC's Reith Lectures, Warner explores the ancient underpinnings of many current cultural debates. Linking Frankenstein to video games and Shakespeare's Caliban to Hannibal Lecter; examining Jurassic Park as a work of covert misogynist propaganda; and tracing the influence of Aeschylus and the brothers Grimm... Read more >

Exam Copy
The Magic Orange Tree
and Other Haitian Folktales
Written by Diane Wolkstein


Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Schocken
On Sale: January 21, 1997
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-8052-1077-4 (0-8052-1077-6)

With a new Preface by Diane Wolkstein, and a new Foreword by Edwidge Danticat. This volume collects twenty-seven Haitian folktales and songs.  Wolkstein traveled the Haitian countryside in search of stories, then harvested a rich collection of tales, each of which is illuminated by introductory notes. From orange trees growing at the... Read more >

Exam Copy
Irish Fairy and Folk Tales

Preface by Paul Muldoon
Edited by William Butler Yeats


Format: Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: February 11, 2003
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6855-2 (0-8129-6855-7)

Gathered by the renowned Irish poet, playwright, and essayist William Butler Yeats, the sixty-five tales and poems in this delightful collection uniquely capture the rich heritage of the Celtic imagination. Filled with legends of village ghosts, fairies, demons, witches, priests, and saints, these stories evoke both tender pathos and lighthearted mirth... Read more >
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