Though quite old, this article on the British Library, ‘Are you afraid of fairies? You should be’, is pretty marvellous. I have to admit, I like my fairies dark. (Holly Black, I’m looking at you. I still remember the first time I read Tithe (2002) and it had a very formative effect).
Site Map
Author's Websites
- Aliette de Bodard
- Alwyn Hamilton
- Alyxandra Harvey
- Angela Carter
- Anne Rice
- Betsy Cornwell
- Brenna Yovanoff
- Cynthia Leitich Smith
- Daniel Waters's Blog
- Deborah Harkness
- Gail Carriger
- Genevieve Cogman
- Glen Duncan
- Holly Black
- Isaac Marion
- Jackson Pearce
- Julia Kagawa
- Kate Griffin
- Kendare Blake
- Kim Newman Web Site
- Laini Taylor
- Laura Lam
- Laure Eve
- Life on Magrs (Paul Magrs)
- Maggie Stiefvater
- Malinda Lo
- Marcus Sedgwick
- Melissa Marr
- Myth & Moor
- Neil Jordan
- Rachel Caine
- Robin McKinley
- Rosamund Hodge
- S. A. Chakraborty
- Samantha Shannon
- Stacey Jay
- Stephenie Meyer
- Tessa Gratton
- Victoria Schwab
Blogroll
- Angela Carter Online
- Beyond Twilight: Young Adult Gothic Fiction
- BNTEENBlog
- Breezes from Wonderland
- Centre for Myth Studies, University of Essex
- Daniel Waters's Blog
- Gothic Imagination (University of Stirling)
- IGA Postgraduate Forum
- Life on Magrs (Paul Magrs)
- Myth & Moor
- Pook Press Book Blog
- Reading the Gothic: UH Reading Group
- Samantha Shannon
- Seven Miles of Steel Thistles
- Spectral Visions (University of Sunderland)
- The Vampire Blog (Jennifer Williams)
- Victoria Schwab
- Wellcome Collection Blog
Journals
- Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies
- Dark Arts Journal
- Dissections: The Journal of Contemporary Horror
- Echinox Journal
- Fairy Tale Review
- Fantastika Journal
- Gothic Nature
- Gothic Studies
- Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies
- Monsters and the Monstrous
- Otranto.co.uk: The New Strawberry Hill Press
- Pennywise Dreadful: The Journal of Stephen King Studies
- Revenant: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural
- Slayage: The Journal of the Whedon Studies Association
- Studies in Gothic Fiction
Related Links
- ACADEmy
- Art Passions
- Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature
- Centre for Myth Studies, University of Essex
- Centre for the History of the Gothic (University of Sheffield)
- Fantastic Fiction
- Fantasy Literature
- Folk Horror Revival
- Folklore Thursday
- Gothicise
- IAFA: The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts
- International Gothic Association
- Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies (MMU)
- MEARCSTAPA
- Mermaids of the British Isles
- My So-called Undeath: My Life as a Zombie (Daniel Waters)
- Pook Press
- RomanceWiki
- Shapeshifters in Popular Culture
- Speculative Fiction in Translation
- Spine-chillers and suspense: A timeline of Gothic fiction
- Supernatural Cities
- Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy
- The Hans Christian Andersen Centre
- The Thinker's Garden
- TheoFantastique
- UK Wolf Conservation Trust
- Vamped
- Wells at the World's End
- Whedon Studies Association
- YA Literature, Media, and Culture
Meta
Oh this is very interesting. I am a fan of the fairy ballad. There are echoes of Keats’s ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ here. She is a wild and wanton fairy temptress too. Of course in English literature we have Coleridge’s ballad Christabel and Keats’s Lamia – both are about vampire women in the tradition on Lilith or are monstrous hybrids. I like the fairy ones however. My favourite fairies are in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ which of course is in an intertextual relationship to Julia Kagawa’s ‘Iron King’. I hope to post on Puck as a character in literature and folklore at some point.
I had a thought about Bella’s defensive power and pacifism that I keep meaning to post about. Oh, and a general perusal through my childhood as a bibliophile. (Unpacking all my books has had this effect on me). I didn’t realise how much I loved fairies until I re-discovered them in my teenage years. I keep trying to convince my young man that he is a changeling. I swear I see the supernatural everywhere nowadays. Pre-Raphaelites, fairies, and the fey are definitely an inspiration for the wedding.
oh lovely they are all combined to brilliant effect in ‘Goblin Market’ -Did you read Anne of Green Gables as a child by any chance? She was obsessed with ‘The Lady of Shallot’!!
My mum says she read ‘Goblin Market’ to me at far too vulnerable age and it has affected me ever since. I remember re-reading it when I was little older and asking if she hoped that I would miss the obvious sexual subtext. I never read Anne of Green Gables – more Pippi Longstockings – but I do love ‘The Lady of Shallot’ and if there is ever a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition then I am there.
I share this love of fairies, too, particularly the dark ones of the brilliant Holly Black–and Kagawa and Melissa Marr as close contenders. There are a few other good YA ones as well, changeling stories featuring heavily.
‘Goblin Market’ is fabulously, erotically sinister (as are Keats and Coleridge).
To my shame, I have never read Anne of Green gables!
I loved those books I wanted to live in Canada and be an orphan so I could be Anne. She is something of a quixote and a fiery red head. She is always self dramatising and being tragic and she decides to renact ‘The Lady of Shallott’ and floats down stream only to be rescued by her arch rival and love interest Gilbert Blyth. She is always quoting Victorian poetry and looks like a pre-raphaelite. It is classic.
Well now I want to read it!