Rewards and Fairies

The stories in here are a lot darker than in Puck of Pook's Hill. Plague and death are the straightforward bits - there's also lifelong illness, losing your place in society, politics and what they force one to ask - the lightest stories are Brother Squaretoes and The Conversion of Brother Wilfrid, which merely deal with keeping faith with oneself. My favorite, though, is The Wrong Thing - one more Hal O' the Draft story, with a truth to it I've run into myself - your best work and what you get rewarded for may have nothing in common. Deep, but not dark - though it did feature a years-long grudge and a threat of imminent death. I wouldn't think a year's change in the children's age would have made them ready to hear this, and in fact show more there are a lot of mentions of them looking blank or seizing on some minor point and clearly missing things. Good stories, though, overall. show less

Whither wander you, spirit?: If anyone walks up to you today and complains loudly in your face about the recent rise of the "sequel" in popularity, stuff a copy of "Rewards and Fairies" in their face and beg them to know their sequel history. Written as a kind of Part Two to Kipling's previous hit, "Puck of Pook's Hill", "Rewards and Fairies" continues where its predecessor left off. Like the first book, "Rewards" once again follows the tame adventures of little Dan and Una as their adventures with Puck (of "Midsummer Night's Dream" fame) give them new insights into England's fabulous past.

Once again our unlikely heroes (and their unlikely guide) are visited by some relatively obscure but important members of England's great moments. show more These include everything from a lady of Queen Elizabeth I's court to a half-English half-French smuggler from the years of the French Revolution. Though the stories in this book vary incredibly in quality, Kipling has extended his narrative by quite a bit. Suddenly the kids are meeting a caveman that gave his own eye for a knife and consequently ended up a god amongst his people. Going completely overboard, Kipling includes a smuggler that tells a story about his travels amongst the Seneca of North America. His tale praises (of all people) President George Washington, making the man out to be just shy of a saint. I doubt very much that there are American works of fiction out there that praise our first president even half as much as Kipling's book does here. Some of the characters from the previous book reappear in this one for a brief encore. Once again we meet Harry Dawe, the stonemason who was knighted by King Henry VIII for saving him thirty pounds. There's Sir Richard Dalyngridge again, telling the last and most drawn out boring tale in the lot. In Harry's case, his reappearance is an extension of his somewhat foreshortened previous adventures. In Sir Richard's case, there is no such excuse.

There are things to love in this book, of course. The poems are just shy of brilliant here and there. It's difficult to keep yourself from singing them once in a while. They're just so doggone rhythmic. And there's a lot of humor in these stories too. Puck at one point introduces the kids to an overly affected astrologer who saved a village from the plague (he had the right methods but the wrong reasons). Then there are lines in this book that could keep you awake and twisting for days. How quickly can you say, "I tell you now that a faith which takes care that every man shall keep faith, even though he may save his soul by breaking faith, is the faith for a man to believe in"? Even better, how quickly can you understand it? The book also gives chummy nicknames to some of the world's most infamous men. Suddenly Napolean Bonaparte is being referred to as "Boney" and Sir Francis Drake is reduced to a mere, "Frankie".
The best way to tell if you'll enjoy "Rewards and Fairies" is to read "Puck of Pook's Hill First". If you read that one and enjoyed it then you should have virtually zippo problems with this later creation. Personally, I loved it. I thought it was a great little English History 101 (though I can't exactly remember the difference between the Normans and the Saxons anymore). If you read everything with the exception of the last chapter, I think you'll find it undeniably charming. And who knew Puck enjoyed hearing about business transactions? You could learn a lot from a text like this. show less

This didn't have the charm of Puck of Pook's Hill although it also lacked the kind of overbearing sense of British imperialism that was so prevalent in Puck and led to some vaguely uncomfortable reading.

I was glad to be with Una and Dan again, though. My British history chops are SORELY lacking. Ouch. There's a lot I don't know. I loved the chapters that took place in Philadelphia with the Seneca and Big Hand.

If you like this - and Puck's as well, you should listen to the Peter Bellamy records that have the poems put to music. https://mainlynorfolk.info/peter.bellamy/records/oakashandthorn.html

This and Puck of Pook's Hill are two of my all-time favorite books, and probably contribiuted to my being a scholar of English history. As an adult, I can see occasional biases and inaccuracies, but the stories are still wonderfully vivid depictions of
historical figures as real people.

Not quite as good as Puck of Pook's Hill, but still enjoyable in the same vein. The poems are one of the best things about both books. Interestingly, his most famous poem, "If", appears here.
But there is no road through the woods....

A miscellany of stories and poems about English history, including some very famous poems, and some... resolutely of their time, told through the medium of Puck and two small children. A sequel to Puck of Pook's hill, but most of the stories are standalone

English history brought to life