"Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies" tell the tale of how Una and Dan, performing a scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream", accidentally summon Puck to a fairy ring near their Sussex home. Through Puck, the children are witnesses to tales of English History. Kipling's historical imagination extends to a variety of stories, many of which blend the ghostly and the farmiliar, and often anticipate his later writing in their themes - a sense of loss and breakdown, but also healing. First published in magazines between ...
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"Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies" tell the tale of how Una and Dan, performing a scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream", accidentally summon Puck to a fairy ring near their Sussex home. Through Puck, the children are witnesses to tales of English History. Kipling's historical imagination extends to a variety of stories, many of which blend the ghostly and the farmiliar, and often anticipate his later writing in their themes - a sense of loss and breakdown, but also healing. First published in magazines between 1906 and 1910, the stories were accompanied by some of Kipling's most famous poems, including "If" and "The Way Through The Woods". This edition includes an introduction which dispels the myth that these stories are just a nostalgic look at English history, discusses their relationship to other historical fiction, and relates them to Kipling's earlier and later writings.
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We are Kipling fans, dyed in the wool, but had never heard of this gem. Two children enact "Midsummer Night's Dream" twice in a row at the foot of "Pook's Hill," on their farm. This conjures "Pook," who is ... Puck, who "jests to Oberon!" From this inspired beginning ensues the summer's adventures for these two children, who in their playful rambles continue to encounter "Pook," or "Puck," the most enchanting (literally) companion ever encountered. In these summer adventures Puck introduces them to figures from English history whose stories, or rather histories, took place on what is now this very farm. The book is a delight, clever and endearing, unexpectedly moving, utterly wonderful.
margaret b
Aug 1, 2011
Specialized fairy story
It's not exactly exciting, but if you like historical events then it is quite interesting. I read it for the life of the Picts having been on Orkney and visited Skara Brae and Maeshowe.
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