Frank de Caro, editor
Barnes & Noble
Nonfiction, Cats/Folklore
***
The Folktale Cat
The Folktale Cat
Frank de Caro, editor
Barnes & Noble
Nonfiction, Cats/Folklore
***
The Folktale Cat
DESCRIPTION: Since the earliest tales were told, cats have featured in many popular stories from around the world in a variety of roles. The editor compiles several tales, from fanciful fairy tales of transformed princesses to dark legends of demon cats.
REVIEW: A discounted wonder, I read it mostly as research for a story I'm trying to finish. The tales included are similar to those in other cat folklore anthologies, with only a few new-to-me tales. The afterword's brief annotations on the stories offered little in the way of spectacular insights, though the editor does at least credit where each tale came from (at least, the version included; almost every one has numerous variants.) It was reasonably adequate, from both a reader-interest standpoint and a research standpoint, but I was hoping for a little better.
You might also enjoy:
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (T. S. Eliot, Poetry - Lively verses that inspired the musical "Cats")
Cats in Space (Brian Fawcett, editor, Fiction - Sci-fi tales of cats)
Catfantastic I - IV (Andre Norton and Martin H. Greenberg, editors, Fiction - Fantasy and sci-fi stories about cats, including several updates on fairy tale themes)
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Terry Pratchett, YA Fiction - A cat running a rat-plague con with co-conspirator rodents and a boy piper runs into a real problem)
The Enchanted Cat (John Richard Stephens, Nonfiction - Literary quotations, exerpts, and poems featuring cats)
The King of the Cats and Other Feline Fairy Tales (John Richard Stephens, Nonfiction - Collected tales of cats)
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