Fairies: A Dangerous History

(Paperback)

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Description

How dangerous were fairies In the late seventeenth century, they could still scare people to death. Little wonder, as they were thought to be descended from fallen angels, and to have the power to destroy the world itself. Such beliefs, along with some remarkably detailed sightings, lingered on well into the twentieth century.

In literature and art fairies often retained this edge of danger. From the wild magic of A Midsummer Night's Dream, through the dark glamour of Keats, to the improbably erotic poem Goblin Market or the paintings inspired by opium dreams, the amoral otherness of the fairies ran side-by-side with the newly delicate or feminized creations of the Victorian world. In the past thirty years the enduring link between fairies and nature has been robustly exploited by eco-warriors and conservationists, from Ireland to Iceland.

This book, now available in paperback, tells the story of the many fairy terrors that lay behind Titania or Tinkerbell.

'Sugg's book is in itself a kind of bewitchment, shimmering and eloquent, written with a certain ironic awareness and in the spirit of surrender to unknowing.' The Australian

Reviews

'[An] engrossing new book.'-Seattle Times; 'Richard Sugg wants to disabuse you of any nonsense you may harbour about fairies being small, whimsical and affectionate . . . Sugg writes well, and amusingly, about the evolution of fairies from Terror to Tinkerbell.'-Toronto Star; 'Sugg's book is in itself a kind of bewitchment, shimmering and eloquent, written with a certain ironic awareness and in the spirit of surrender to unknowing.'-The Australian

Author Bio

Richard Sugg is the author of eight books, including Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires (2015), A Century of Ghost Stories (2017) and A Singing Mouse at Buckingham Palace (2017). He lives in Cardiff.