history and criticism

A fantastic resource for skeptics and believers in the hidden world alike, At the Bottom of the Garden tracks the reasons behind the fairy mythos from ancient roots to present day UFOs. Despite criticisms of Purkiss's scholarship, the book sheds more light on the human condition than anything else, and is an excellent resource for writers and others who are trying to understand the way human need creates myths.

A MUCH BETTER READ IS "THE WORLD GUIDE TO GNOMES, FARIES, ELVES, AND OTHER LITTLE PEOPLE" BY THOMAS KEIGHTLEY. ALSO K.M. BRIGGS HAS GREAT BOOKS ON FARIES THOUGH MOST OF HER BOOKS ARE OUT OF PRINT. TO KNOW THE DARK SIDE OF FARIES IS EASY JUST READ ANY BOOK ON CELIIC LORE OR FOLK TALES FROM THE LATE 1600'S WHICH THOMAS KEIGHTLEY HAS MANY OLD DARK TALES IN HIS BOOK. DIANE PURKIS SAYS NOTHING NEW IN THIS BOOK AND TRIES HER BEST TO MIX HER FEMINIST SWING INTO EVERY PAGE.

Faery lore is a complicated thing--a mishmash of myths, beliefs, and tales that don't always add up to a coherent whole. Much has been written about the connection between faeries and half-remembered indigenous gods, and about the possibility that faeries were actually an ancient race of humans banished to the wilds. The market is filled, today, with books of beautiful and sweet faeries. But there is no other book like this one.

Diane Purkiss's theory is that the faeries are reminiscent of the demons of the Mediterranean culture--the lamashtu who steals babies away into death, the lamia who seduces and devours men--and that faery lore deals with the same issues as these earlier myths. The faeries, she contends, were an explanation for why beautiful young people were taken away in illness and death. She tells heartbreaking stories of women who tortured and abandoned their sick babies, thinking them changelings; she disturbs us with the tale of Michael Cleary, who killed his wife and honestly seemed to believe his *real* wife would return to him now that he had disposed of the faery impostor. A far-fetched belief? Perhaps not; fairy stories of the time seemed to advocate just such actions. Purkiss takes us on an uncomfortable journey through the most brutal of faery myths, then into the Victorian age, when faeries became a symbol of idealized childhood. But there was a dark side to this as well--onstage "faeries" were played by street orphans who lived incredibly hard lives, and Barrie's _Peter Pan_ takes on a very different undertone when it comes out that the children in the play were based on children Barrie had known, who had *died young* and therefore stayed forever young.

I would have given this book five stars for its unique and disturbing perspective--it ought to be on the shelves of faery enthusiasts if only for balance--but I subtracted a star because Purkiss insists that her theory is the only valid way to look at the fairy-faith. There are many different beliefs that shaped the concept of the faery; I applaud Purkiss for digging into some of the darkest ones. But, as I said before, balance...balance...balance.