Faeries: A History in Art, Verse, and Lore

“I like to live as if faeries are something I might encounter,” explains ifestyle blogger and children’s author Van De Car (The Invisible Wild) in this whimsical encyclopedia. From goblins to pixies, the author surveys the many varieties of mythical beings with “diminutive human forms and magic powers,” sorting them into their traditional Scottish categories of Seelie and Unseelie, or well-meaning (if still mischievous) and nefarious. She draws extensively on literature and art history, including the works of Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Rodin, as well as more obscure figures like Victorian painter John Anster Fitzgerald, aka “Fairy Fitzgerald,” a “recluse who was rarely seen outside his club in London or at an opium den” and whose depictions of fairies possess an unsettling “savagery.” The volume delights with its lesser-known fairy factoids; for example, an entry on will-o’-the-wisps (“tiny flicker[s] of light... appearing over graveyards, swamps, and bogs”) notes that in Colombia these spectral lights are considered “the ghost of an abuela who raised her grandchildren to become thieves and murderers.” While some readers might quibble that the typologizing is too new agey and not academic enough—fairies are also categorized based on their association with the elements—the collection nevertheless makes for a fascinating overview of fairy folklore. It’s an enchanting and lavishly illustrated treat. (Oct.)