Diverse tales, less entertaining than erudite
From the outset, Dorson makes it clear that this is NOT an anthology of expurgated folktales for the entertainment of readers in the industrialised north and west; it is a semi-scholarly collection of transcripts that are true to the spoken word of the tellers. Some of the stories - e.g. the Afghan tale of the day thief and the night thief - do have immense entertainment value, but others are barely accessible to the European reader.
This might serve as a good introduction to the folktales of the world, for somebody who is keenly interested in the diversity of folktales and in the contexts in which they are told and gathered.
It might also serve to provide a few pointers to other collections, from which Dorson has selected the tales in this volume.
The practising storyteller may find it difficult to extract more than a few workable tales from this book.