What do you think?
Rate this book
The Golden Phoenix
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
3 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 26, 2024
“No; the Vision is always solid and reliable. The Vision is always a fact. It is Reality which is often a fraud.”
-G.K. Chesterton, The Ethics of Elfland, from Orthodoxy.
And here’s a wonderful YA book that can teach you the ethics of elf-land - from the POV of the French Catholic émigrés from Normandy and Flanders.
They were the ones who, worn out and wearied after the woebegone 17th century wars of religion, sought refuge in those Voltairean “quelques arpents de neige” known as pioneering Québec.
This is such an exceptional collection of French Canadian folktales - but, at last look, being out of print for almost forever.
But man, oh, man: the memories of childhood its cover evokes!
And it’s so wonderful that it’s still available - somewhere!
I will never forget the summer of 1957...
In our small family kitchen, freshly painted in robin's-egg blue enamel, our aluminum-framed table - with its bright red formica pattern and matching red plastic and aluminum chairs (my parents didn't have much money back then!) - was piled high with books.
My Mom was a village chief librarian, just starting out in the business of life, after raising us three kids - with truckloads of books to catalogue!
She passed me this book to occupy me while she was working. I had been poring over many of the colourful new picture books on the table, to the sounds of the buzzing insects (before DDT!) and bright-winged redwing blackbirds from the fields outside the kitchen - virgin undeveloped grasslands stretching for miles, a paradise of fun for tots like me and my little brother.
THEN my mother passed me this one. Now, in those heady days, the beckoning call of hours of unsupervised play in the wild had heretofore had NO competition.
Our single-channeled Rabbit-eared B&W TV only talked grown-up talk. The electric radio only talked grown-up talk. Grown-ups just talked... you got it.
But that day, here was something New - BOOKS. Yeah, they had a few up at my primary school - but not in such copious profusion as the squadrons that now bedecked our groaning kitchen table...
And THIS one! It was summer vacation time, so I didn’t hafta go to bed at eight, and I remember those early warm nights with the frogs happily singing in nearby ponds, and poring over this at that same kitchen table. I was hooked from the start...
It was written by Marius Barbeau, the great Canadian folklorist and ethnographer. We used to listen religiously to his CBC Radio broadcasts of Canadian aboriginal legends and tribal lore in those days, on my Grandfather’s huge old ornately carved 1930’s tube-technology radio.
Barbeau was also very big on the folklore of the French Habitants, who brought their traditional legends over from France in the tall ships to Québec...
Where it underwent a sea change in our harsh climate and morphed into phantasmagoric new forms - like the French Canadian fairy tales in this priceless book.
Chesterton would have been green with envy, had he known!
From the tale of Scurvyhead (sea travel had its perils back then) to the story of Princess Tombossa, these wonderful stories will captivate children of all ages!
What Dreams of Early Infancy they evoked in my mind, the power that that childish sprite Peter Pan had, to whisk three little children up into the blue cerulean over the uncharted forgotten ultramarine deep, till all four (guided by Tinker Bell) were safely on the Magical Soil of Neverland!
If you had told me back then, as the Edwardian Establishment told Chesterton, that this Magical Vision has never existed...
I would have told You to Your Face that you lied!
Tell ANY child that Dull Reality is more real than his or her Vision - and they will see Right Through You.
They will know you as an old FRAUD.
This beautiful book, though once reprinted in 1971, is now unfortunately unavailable, EXCEPT - and this is good news for American GR members - in some places in the States.
Just LOOK at the rave reviews on Amazon.com!
Five Full Fairy Land stars!
-G.K. Chesterton, The Ethics of Elfland, from Orthodoxy.
And here’s a wonderful YA book that can teach you the ethics of elf-land - from the POV of the French Catholic émigrés from Normandy and Flanders.
They were the ones who, worn out and wearied after the woebegone 17th century wars of religion, sought refuge in those Voltairean “quelques arpents de neige” known as pioneering Québec.
This is such an exceptional collection of French Canadian folktales - but, at last look, being out of print for almost forever.
But man, oh, man: the memories of childhood its cover evokes!
And it’s so wonderful that it’s still available - somewhere!
I will never forget the summer of 1957...
In our small family kitchen, freshly painted in robin's-egg blue enamel, our aluminum-framed table - with its bright red formica pattern and matching red plastic and aluminum chairs (my parents didn't have much money back then!) - was piled high with books.
My Mom was a village chief librarian, just starting out in the business of life, after raising us three kids - with truckloads of books to catalogue!
She passed me this book to occupy me while she was working. I had been poring over many of the colourful new picture books on the table, to the sounds of the buzzing insects (before DDT!) and bright-winged redwing blackbirds from the fields outside the kitchen - virgin undeveloped grasslands stretching for miles, a paradise of fun for tots like me and my little brother.
THEN my mother passed me this one. Now, in those heady days, the beckoning call of hours of unsupervised play in the wild had heretofore had NO competition.
Our single-channeled Rabbit-eared B&W TV only talked grown-up talk. The electric radio only talked grown-up talk. Grown-ups just talked... you got it.
But that day, here was something New - BOOKS. Yeah, they had a few up at my primary school - but not in such copious profusion as the squadrons that now bedecked our groaning kitchen table...
And THIS one! It was summer vacation time, so I didn’t hafta go to bed at eight, and I remember those early warm nights with the frogs happily singing in nearby ponds, and poring over this at that same kitchen table. I was hooked from the start...
It was written by Marius Barbeau, the great Canadian folklorist and ethnographer. We used to listen religiously to his CBC Radio broadcasts of Canadian aboriginal legends and tribal lore in those days, on my Grandfather’s huge old ornately carved 1930’s tube-technology radio.
Barbeau was also very big on the folklore of the French Habitants, who brought their traditional legends over from France in the tall ships to Québec...
Where it underwent a sea change in our harsh climate and morphed into phantasmagoric new forms - like the French Canadian fairy tales in this priceless book.
Chesterton would have been green with envy, had he known!
From the tale of Scurvyhead (sea travel had its perils back then) to the story of Princess Tombossa, these wonderful stories will captivate children of all ages!
What Dreams of Early Infancy they evoked in my mind, the power that that childish sprite Peter Pan had, to whisk three little children up into the blue cerulean over the uncharted forgotten ultramarine deep, till all four (guided by Tinker Bell) were safely on the Magical Soil of Neverland!
If you had told me back then, as the Edwardian Establishment told Chesterton, that this Magical Vision has never existed...
I would have told You to Your Face that you lied!
Tell ANY child that Dull Reality is more real than his or her Vision - and they will see Right Through You.
They will know you as an old FRAUD.
This beautiful book, though once reprinted in 1971, is now unfortunately unavailable, EXCEPT - and this is good news for American GR members - in some places in the States.
Just LOOK at the rave reviews on Amazon.com!
Five Full Fairy Land stars!
August 6, 2012
This is my favorite fairy tale book of all time. I must have read it 100 times as a kid. I have told the stories to my second-grade classes in the past. Now I tell myself the stories on nights when I can't sleep; there have been a lot of those this past year.
October 23, 2017
The book containts eight re-told French-Canadian fairy tales from the collections of Marius Barbeau. The stories were all gathered from the oral tradition along the St. Lawrence River, and they all have European origins (even though the Princess of Tomboso, for example, was first collected from the Ojibwe, who probably heard it from traders). Some of the tales resembled the 18th century French literary fairy tales in their imagery and storytelling. Lovely read.
July 1, 2016
As a kid I was obsessed with fairy and folk tales and in my quest to find new and interesting tales I picked this book up. Did it ever deliver. The tales within were different than those I was familiar with, but still recognizably the kind of fairy tale I was used to. Princes on quests and magical knowledge granting snakes and a golden phoenix alike, these were fairy tales worth reading.
March 12, 2020
This is the first book I remember reading on my own. While some of the stories are similar, I love the happy endings each have.
May 21, 2019
I enjoyed these books as a child. Rereading them to my children as a grownup, I might edit these a little. However, my two children (boy 7, girl 5) have enjoyed me reading these before bed.
November 12, 2019
The Golden Phoenix: Eight French-Canadian Fairy Tales, by Marius Barbeau, retold by Michael Hornyansky, 1958, 144pp.
Excellent fairy tales you haven't heard before. Great attitude. Playful and satisfying. Fun. None of the grimness of German fairy tales.
"I collected these at first hand from raconteurs over many years. They are presented here in a polished retelling by Michael Hornyansky. Their treatment in his skilful hands deserves praise, for you must remember that the /habitants/ and lumberjacks who used to tell these stories were often crude, though natural, simple, and lively. Mr. Hornyansky and I aimed at a literary uplifting similar to that of Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault."
"We folklorists have already recorded many hundreds of stories from old people, but they are soon to die out because of a changed world." -- Marius Barbeau, 1958.
For more on the Canadian sources, see the author's /Les Contes du Grand-père Sept-Heures/.
The Golden Phoenix ****
The Princess of Tomboso *****
The Fairy Quite Contrary ****
Scurvyhead ****
Sir Goldenhair ****
The Fountain of Youth ****
Jacques the Woodcutter ****
The Sly Thief of Valenciennes ****
Excellent fairy tales you haven't heard before. Great attitude. Playful and satisfying. Fun. None of the grimness of German fairy tales.
"I collected these at first hand from raconteurs over many years. They are presented here in a polished retelling by Michael Hornyansky. Their treatment in his skilful hands deserves praise, for you must remember that the /habitants/ and lumberjacks who used to tell these stories were often crude, though natural, simple, and lively. Mr. Hornyansky and I aimed at a literary uplifting similar to that of Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault."
"We folklorists have already recorded many hundreds of stories from old people, but they are soon to die out because of a changed world." -- Marius Barbeau, 1958.
For more on the Canadian sources, see the author's /Les Contes du Grand-père Sept-Heures/.
The Golden Phoenix ****
The Princess of Tomboso *****
The Fairy Quite Contrary ****
Scurvyhead ****
Sir Goldenhair ****
The Fountain of Youth ****
Jacques the Woodcutter ****
The Sly Thief of Valenciennes ****
July 24, 2014
I didn't know any of these stories before I enjoyed reading them. I'm not sure the tales are memorably told though.
June 21, 2020
Found this at my grandma's house. I like to think that I've read every fairy tale, but I had never heard these. They all were wonderful.
March 23, 2020
Canadian, Mr Fergus, wrote about the beautiful fairy tales of French Canada and how delighted he was, as a child, to read these tales. Everything around has been depressing, Texas has had so much rain, dark skies, Corvid-19, and coronavirus, going around, people getting sick, dying, have to be isolated from life. But it will all be over soon. I was brought up on fairy tales and felt I needed something nice and fun. So I ordered the book from Amazon. This book is from a school library, in excellent condition.
There are stories of kings, princes, princesses, witches, giants, and much more. It is a delight to read, takes away from so much sadness and problems.
There are eight stories. A golden phoenix who loves his home. In several stories, the youngest son, some are names Petit Jean, is the bravest and strongest of the princes. One story is about a spoiled, beautiful princess , who wants to have everything she wants. Bad and good fairies, voyages tostrange, frightening places, gold fits in much of fairy tales. There are witches and those who want to win the hands of beautiful princesses. The last story is about a man who loves money and riches and would do much to gain them. It is funny and laughable as are all the stories. The pictures in the book are great, fun, and funny.
Marius Barbeau writes about how he obtained these stories that were brought to Canada from northern France, but beginning are much, much older, back in time. They were presented in polished retelling by Michael Hornyansky for publishing for many to read.
O I have never heard of these stories until Mr Fergus wrote of them. Loved these stories. Good read for children and even for adults.
There are stories of kings, princes, princesses, witches, giants, and much more. It is a delight to read, takes away from so much sadness and problems.
There are eight stories. A golden phoenix who loves his home. In several stories, the youngest son, some are names Petit Jean, is the bravest and strongest of the princes. One story is about a spoiled, beautiful princess , who wants to have everything she wants. Bad and good fairies, voyages tostrange, frightening places, gold fits in much of fairy tales. There are witches and those who want to win the hands of beautiful princesses. The last story is about a man who loves money and riches and would do much to gain them. It is funny and laughable as are all the stories. The pictures in the book are great, fun, and funny.
Marius Barbeau writes about how he obtained these stories that were brought to Canada from northern France, but beginning are much, much older, back in time. They were presented in polished retelling by Michael Hornyansky for publishing for many to read.
O I have never heard of these stories until Mr Fergus wrote of them. Loved these stories. Good read for children and even for adults.
July 28, 2021
This is a collection I loved so well as a child, I apparently absconded with it from the school library when I already had another copy under a different name ("The Magic Tree and Other Tales") and it holds up well lo, these many years later.
It would be interesting to read the "originals", since this edition has been refined and doubtless cleaned up for kids (by Michael Hornyansky, who actually gets a credit on the "Tree" edition). Barbeau mentions that he had read a version of "Jacques The Woodcutter" in Bocaccio.
Well, the version we have here has the wife of our good fellow Jacque entertaining a prince every day while he's off cutting wood—by cooking delightful meals for him, in exchange for a gold piece. Why do I suspect the Bocaccio version doesn't have her cooking, primarily?
Anyway, charming stuff with not a lot of violence and a fair amount of cleverness. I regret I did not think of it before my own kids were too old for bedtime stories.
It would be interesting to read the "originals", since this edition has been refined and doubtless cleaned up for kids (by Michael Hornyansky, who actually gets a credit on the "Tree" edition). Barbeau mentions that he had read a version of "Jacques The Woodcutter" in Bocaccio.
Well, the version we have here has the wife of our good fellow Jacque entertaining a prince every day while he's off cutting wood—by cooking delightful meals for him, in exchange for a gold piece. Why do I suspect the Bocaccio version doesn't have her cooking, primarily?
Anyway, charming stuff with not a lot of violence and a fair amount of cleverness. I regret I did not think of it before my own kids were too old for bedtime stories.
March 23, 2020
My favorite story was "the sly thief of Valenciennes".
The other stories were good too.
The other stories were good too.
September 21, 2020
Some childhood favorites are as good as your child-self remembers. ♥️
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews