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The Jack Tales
A collection of folk tales from the southern Appalachians that center on a single character, the irrepressible Jack.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1943
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About the author
Richard Thomas Chase
33 books7 followersRichard Thomas Chase [February 15, 1904 – February 2 1988) was an American folklorist and an authority on English-American folklore.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
December 15, 2017
Note, Dec. 15, 2017: I edited this review just now to correct a minor typo.
As kids, most Americans are exposed, at one time or another, to a retelling of the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Some Americans are vaguely aware that this is a very old story, going back several centuries at least. But most modern people really know very little about the rich oral tradition of folk tales (in the world in general, or specifically those from northern Europe, from which that story comes), and in particular have no idea that this same Jack is actually the hero of several stories originating in the same milieu.
In cultures that were/are largely preliterate or aliterate, and in the absence of mass media and computers, the human impulse to entertain with and be entertained by stories found its expression in oral tales, handed down, memorized over generations, traveling with the movement of clans and tribes, sometimes transmitted from group to group, perhaps changing slightly or developing variants as they're retold by many different voices. Where reading a story can be a solitary act, sharing the experience of an oral tale is a social act; and the contents of the tales are a repository of history and tradition, a shared cultural heritage that contributes to shaping a common identity (and often, a quarry of source material for literary storytelling as well). European immigrants to America, of course, brought their folktales with them. The Jack Tales, in particular, came over with the British settlers in very early colonial times.
As English-descended settlers found their way into the fastnesses of the Appalachian mountains, they brought their oral storytelling with them. Over the ensuing centuries, elsewhere in the U.S., most of the tales about Jack were simply forgotten. But the coves and hamlets of Appalachia tended to be physically, culturally and socially isolated in the 18th and 19th centuries, and even well into the 20th century; and there they survived much longer, to become part of the area's characteristic folk culture. Folklorist Richard Chase recorded the tales in this collection (the audio recordings are, I believe, in the possession of the Smithsonian Institution) between 1935 and 1943, mainly in the Beech Mountain area of North Carolina and in Wise County, Virgina, and mainly from storyteller R. M. Ward and other descendants of one Council Harmon (1803-1896), who was known as a master recounter of the tales. The book is transcribed from these recordings, but with some harmonizing of different versions and verbal adaptation for an audience of younger readers (any changes are noted) and enriched by Berkeley Williams' wonderful drawings.
To read (or listen to), these stories is to enter a world where there are multi-headed, human-eating giants; where shape-shifting malevolent witches exist; where magic is a reality, and really strange things can happen. The tales themselves are old (so old that the grey-bearded man with one eye who figures in some of them is thought by some scholars to have originally been Odin!), but the material culture they depict has adapted to its Appalachian surroundings, even while the earlier socio-cultural details persist. For instance, Jack sometimes encounters a ruling king --but he'll live in a big cabin, and if you stop by at mealtime, his woman will fix you some vittles. :-) The style of the storytelling is shaped by the demands of the oral medium. We get a sense of Jack's personality --a bit lazy, but essentially good-hearted, brave and resourceful, lucky and a bit of a trickster at times, and smarter than his brothers Will and Tom usually credit him with being-- but characterizations in general aren't as sharp as they'd be in literary fiction, and there's no introspection or elaborate description. Narrative is plot-driven, and moves at a good clip, with something always happening to avoid listener boredom. Common folkloric patterns like events that happen in series of threes, and widespread folk beliefs (such as the powerful properties of silver as a weapon against supernatural evil) are very much in evidence in several stories.
Counting "Jack and the Bean Tree," there are 18 tales here. My own favorites are "Sop Doll" and "Jack in the Giant's Newground;" but I enjoyed all of them. Helpful added features here are the fascinating 17-page Appendix by another folklorist, Herbert Halpert, which delves into the studies of the tradition by serious folklore scholars, with detailed analysis of the parallels of elements in each story with other folklore. There's also a useful two-page glossary of distinctive Appalachian expressions found here.
My wife Barb was born and raised in Appalachia, but in a household where folk tales weren't part of life; and in her generation and the ones after it, the cultural homogenization of "mainstream" American life and the pressures of modernity have taken a toll on Appalachian oral tradition and cultural memory. :-( It's ironic that I, as an interloper from the Midwest -I sometimes say that "I got here as quickly as I could!"-- have taken more interest in these tales (though Barb liked them when I read them to her), and that I had to discover them through a book. But I've tried to do my bit to keep the oral tradition alive; I've told some of the stories to my daughters and grandkids, and other younger family members on Barb's side, and I've had the privilege of relating one Jack tale to a church youth group at a Halloween lock-in. And the tales are alive and well in the ongoing repertoire of a number of living Appalachian storytellers, in the mold of the late Ray Hicks (whose re-telling of one of these yarns, on VHS video available from Appalshop --maybe on DVD nowadays-- is well worth a listen!).
As kids, most Americans are exposed, at one time or another, to a retelling of the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Some Americans are vaguely aware that this is a very old story, going back several centuries at least. But most modern people really know very little about the rich oral tradition of folk tales (in the world in general, or specifically those from northern Europe, from which that story comes), and in particular have no idea that this same Jack is actually the hero of several stories originating in the same milieu.
In cultures that were/are largely preliterate or aliterate, and in the absence of mass media and computers, the human impulse to entertain with and be entertained by stories found its expression in oral tales, handed down, memorized over generations, traveling with the movement of clans and tribes, sometimes transmitted from group to group, perhaps changing slightly or developing variants as they're retold by many different voices. Where reading a story can be a solitary act, sharing the experience of an oral tale is a social act; and the contents of the tales are a repository of history and tradition, a shared cultural heritage that contributes to shaping a common identity (and often, a quarry of source material for literary storytelling as well). European immigrants to America, of course, brought their folktales with them. The Jack Tales, in particular, came over with the British settlers in very early colonial times.
As English-descended settlers found their way into the fastnesses of the Appalachian mountains, they brought their oral storytelling with them. Over the ensuing centuries, elsewhere in the U.S., most of the tales about Jack were simply forgotten. But the coves and hamlets of Appalachia tended to be physically, culturally and socially isolated in the 18th and 19th centuries, and even well into the 20th century; and there they survived much longer, to become part of the area's characteristic folk culture. Folklorist Richard Chase recorded the tales in this collection (the audio recordings are, I believe, in the possession of the Smithsonian Institution) between 1935 and 1943, mainly in the Beech Mountain area of North Carolina and in Wise County, Virgina, and mainly from storyteller R. M. Ward and other descendants of one Council Harmon (1803-1896), who was known as a master recounter of the tales. The book is transcribed from these recordings, but with some harmonizing of different versions and verbal adaptation for an audience of younger readers (any changes are noted) and enriched by Berkeley Williams' wonderful drawings.
To read (or listen to), these stories is to enter a world where there are multi-headed, human-eating giants; where shape-shifting malevolent witches exist; where magic is a reality, and really strange things can happen. The tales themselves are old (so old that the grey-bearded man with one eye who figures in some of them is thought by some scholars to have originally been Odin!), but the material culture they depict has adapted to its Appalachian surroundings, even while the earlier socio-cultural details persist. For instance, Jack sometimes encounters a ruling king --but he'll live in a big cabin, and if you stop by at mealtime, his woman will fix you some vittles. :-) The style of the storytelling is shaped by the demands of the oral medium. We get a sense of Jack's personality --a bit lazy, but essentially good-hearted, brave and resourceful, lucky and a bit of a trickster at times, and smarter than his brothers Will and Tom usually credit him with being-- but characterizations in general aren't as sharp as they'd be in literary fiction, and there's no introspection or elaborate description. Narrative is plot-driven, and moves at a good clip, with something always happening to avoid listener boredom. Common folkloric patterns like events that happen in series of threes, and widespread folk beliefs (such as the powerful properties of silver as a weapon against supernatural evil) are very much in evidence in several stories.
Counting "Jack and the Bean Tree," there are 18 tales here. My own favorites are "Sop Doll" and "Jack in the Giant's Newground;" but I enjoyed all of them. Helpful added features here are the fascinating 17-page Appendix by another folklorist, Herbert Halpert, which delves into the studies of the tradition by serious folklore scholars, with detailed analysis of the parallels of elements in each story with other folklore. There's also a useful two-page glossary of distinctive Appalachian expressions found here.
My wife Barb was born and raised in Appalachia, but in a household where folk tales weren't part of life; and in her generation and the ones after it, the cultural homogenization of "mainstream" American life and the pressures of modernity have taken a toll on Appalachian oral tradition and cultural memory. :-( It's ironic that I, as an interloper from the Midwest -I sometimes say that "I got here as quickly as I could!"-- have taken more interest in these tales (though Barb liked them when I read them to her), and that I had to discover them through a book. But I've tried to do my bit to keep the oral tradition alive; I've told some of the stories to my daughters and grandkids, and other younger family members on Barb's side, and I've had the privilege of relating one Jack tale to a church youth group at a Halloween lock-in. And the tales are alive and well in the ongoing repertoire of a number of living Appalachian storytellers, in the mold of the late Ray Hicks (whose re-telling of one of these yarns, on VHS video available from Appalshop --maybe on DVD nowadays-- is well worth a listen!).
July 22, 2022
Finished this yesterday at lunch. Found myself giggling many times and covering my giggles with my hand to keep my cube mates from wondering if I gone nuts!!
The tales are of Jack the youngest of the boys. He tends to be lazy and ready for any adventure that will use his boyhood talent of wit!
Full of southern drawls and mountain slang (Appalachia) with a celebration of Jack the Hero and Jack the Trickster. Lots of humor to keep things fun and interesting.
You may have thought you had a finger on all the Fairy Tales but take a read of this tale...you might be surprised at your own reaction!
The tales are of Jack the youngest of the boys. He tends to be lazy and ready for any adventure that will use his boyhood talent of wit!
Full of southern drawls and mountain slang (Appalachia) with a celebration of Jack the Hero and Jack the Trickster. Lots of humor to keep things fun and interesting.
You may have thought you had a finger on all the Fairy Tales but take a read of this tale...you might be surprised at your own reaction!
July 11, 2009
During my last 30 years as an elderhostel instructor, this book has been a primary resource. Chase 'collected' most of his stories directly from mountain folks, and he completed this collection at a very significant time. The oral tradition was fading, primarily because no one told stories to the family after the advent of TV. Consequently, when Chase began his collection of old traditional Jack tales, the stories were already fading from the memories of Applachia's elderly. In many instances, Chase came to feel that he had interviewed one of the last living "tellers." In the process of collecting the stories, Chase noted that many of the Jack tales were actually versions of the Grimm brothers' tales, or even "variations" of Chaucer, of tales in the Decameron. Like Joseph Campbell, Chase noted that there were many variations of the same story. For example, there are numerous versions of "Godfather Death" ranging from the Appalachian "Soldier Jack" to Spanish and Italian versions that reflect differing cultural attitudes toward death.
October 29, 2023
The Jack Tales by Richard Chase:
I gave this four stars, not because I enjoyed it, I actually didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped I would, but because of how important this collection of stories is.
Folklorist Richard Chase collected the Jack Tales from people in Beech Mountain, NC and Wise County, VA back in the 1940s. Had he not done so, these stories would have been lost to time.
The titular hero Jack, is a classic example of a trickster, often outwitting his adversaries through tricks. Tricksters, interestingly enough, appear across folklore and mythology around the globe. We’ve all heard of Jack from the most well-known Jack Tale, Jack and the Bean Stock, but that tale is just one of many.
I bought this book and felt the need to read it because I’m from Appalachia, my parents are actually both from Wise County, where many of these stories were collected. I’ve long studied and been interested in the ties between Appalachia and Britain, and The Jack Tales are a direct part of that link. These stories all came from England, and were persevered in Appalachia for centuries. The tales often mention Scotland, the King, etc. There are even indirect references to Oden, so that just shows you how old these stories are.
What I didn’t like about this collection is that these stories aren’t meant to be read, so therefore they’re had to read like a normal book. Of course, this is the point of folklore, that these are oral traditions that have been passed down.
I gave this four stars, not because I enjoyed it, I actually didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped I would, but because of how important this collection of stories is.
Folklorist Richard Chase collected the Jack Tales from people in Beech Mountain, NC and Wise County, VA back in the 1940s. Had he not done so, these stories would have been lost to time.
The titular hero Jack, is a classic example of a trickster, often outwitting his adversaries through tricks. Tricksters, interestingly enough, appear across folklore and mythology around the globe. We’ve all heard of Jack from the most well-known Jack Tale, Jack and the Bean Stock, but that tale is just one of many.
I bought this book and felt the need to read it because I’m from Appalachia, my parents are actually both from Wise County, where many of these stories were collected. I’ve long studied and been interested in the ties between Appalachia and Britain, and The Jack Tales are a direct part of that link. These stories all came from England, and were persevered in Appalachia for centuries. The tales often mention Scotland, the King, etc. There are even indirect references to Oden, so that just shows you how old these stories are.
What I didn’t like about this collection is that these stories aren’t meant to be read, so therefore they’re had to read like a normal book. Of course, this is the point of folklore, that these are oral traditions that have been passed down.
March 13, 2021
I always loved this book. My 6th-grade teacher used to read a story from it to our class every Friday afternoon. I came across it recently, quite unexpectantly, and just had to purchase it and read it for myself.
Richard Chase collected The Jack Tales in the mountain country of North Carolina, where they have been handed down for generations. This is the same Jack as the one from "Jack and the Beanstalk". In this collection, that story is known as "Jack and the Beantree", however. This book contains eighteen stories about Jack, told from a uniquely Appalachian point of view.
Richard Chase collected The Jack Tales in the mountain country of North Carolina, where they have been handed down for generations. This is the same Jack as the one from "Jack and the Beanstalk". In this collection, that story is known as "Jack and the Beantree", however. This book contains eighteen stories about Jack, told from a uniquely Appalachian point of view.
July 6, 2014
A collection of folktales from North Carolina and Virginia, all featuring a hero named Jack.
Not all of them are consistent with each other, one narrator even commenting on the marriage problem, but they are also not independent of each other -- Jack, for instance, often has two brother named Will and Tom.
But Jack doesn't just climb the beanstalk. He also deals with robbers -- is oppressed by his employer and helped by a magical bull -- stays all night in a mill and sternly forbids a cat to sop its doll in his meal, ending up chopping off its paw and finding it turning into a hand -- marries a king's daughter by making her laugh -- helps a girl turned into a cat by a wicked witch -- wins a match with King Marock and sets out to find him, not knowing he's a wizard, and has daughters who turn, not into birds, but into greyhounds -- and the last tale where he trapped Death, but finally freed him on hearing that people wanted to die, they were growing so old, and he was the first one to die himself.
Many different takes on many old tales known across Europe. Including notes about types and parallels.
Not all of them are consistent with each other, one narrator even commenting on the marriage problem, but they are also not independent of each other -- Jack, for instance, often has two brother named Will and Tom.
But Jack doesn't just climb the beanstalk. He also deals with robbers -- is oppressed by his employer and helped by a magical bull -- stays all night in a mill and sternly forbids a cat to sop its doll in his meal, ending up chopping off its paw and finding it turning into a hand -- marries a king's daughter by making her laugh -- helps a girl turned into a cat by a wicked witch -- wins a match with King Marock and sets out to find him, not knowing he's a wizard, and has daughters who turn, not into birds, but into greyhounds -- and the last tale where he trapped Death, but finally freed him on hearing that people wanted to die, they were growing so old, and he was the first one to die himself.
Many different takes on many old tales known across Europe. Including notes about types and parallels.
August 15, 2012
I first read this book in 1982 as a sophomore in high school taking a folklore and mythology course at Harvard Summer School. Back then, while enjoyable, it was an academic affair, leading to papers and comp lit. What a difference from my recent out loud readings to my six year old son. Speaking the words in the Appalachian dialect which Chase captures, I couldn't help having a southern drawl. Jack remains the quintessential Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn: clever, mischievous, cunning, successful and not above a mean prank. The Jack Tales are great for kids, though a bit violent in this PC age, as well as adults. They remain a rich resource for scholars who want to study their European roots. Above, all, this is quintessential American literature in its rawest and purest form.
November 24, 2012
Great fun. They remind me of granddad's stories.
Full review here: http://www.oldeship.blogspot.com/2012...
Full review here: http://www.oldeship.blogspot.com/2012...
November 3, 2022
These are a series of short stories told by Council Harmon’s family in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and recorded from their oral tradition.
I love the language in this book. If you concentrate you can almost hear someone’s Virginian grandfather telling you these stories as if he’d been there and saw Jack do it all. And I love Jack: lazy, accident-prone, and with questionable morals, he’s also clever, generous to strangers and above all very lucky. Jack’s the opposite of the ideal American man who works hard and makes something of himself. He’ll do anything to avoid working a lick (he lies, thieves, cheats), but he always shares what he has and he never refuses an adventure and somehow he ends up with sacks of gold and the king’s daughter’s hand in marriage. It’s irresistible.
Many of these tales will be familiar, though you may know them with other protagonists (like Jack and the Varmints aka the Brave Tailor), and of course a version of Jack and Bean Trees is there. However, other stories are uniquely Southern. Definitely worth the read.
I love the language in this book. If you concentrate you can almost hear someone’s Virginian grandfather telling you these stories as if he’d been there and saw Jack do it all. And I love Jack: lazy, accident-prone, and with questionable morals, he’s also clever, generous to strangers and above all very lucky. Jack’s the opposite of the ideal American man who works hard and makes something of himself. He’ll do anything to avoid working a lick (he lies, thieves, cheats), but he always shares what he has and he never refuses an adventure and somehow he ends up with sacks of gold and the king’s daughter’s hand in marriage. It’s irresistible.
Many of these tales will be familiar, though you may know them with other protagonists (like Jack and the Varmints aka the Brave Tailor), and of course a version of Jack and Bean Trees is there. However, other stories are uniquely Southern. Definitely worth the read.
July 26, 2020
This is a good collection but somehow it isn't what I was expecting. I grew up in East Tennessee and heard many great storytellers tell stories. A couple of these stories were familiar but the stories our storytellers told were (at least in my memory) really awesome. If others know of stories collected for that purpose, I'd be interested in reading them.
I guess it shouldn't be a surprise but don't read this book expecting it to be politically correct (it won't be). If you read it expecting stories from around 1900, that might help. Some content might be more than a little surprising for modern readers.
I guess it shouldn't be a surprise but don't read this book expecting it to be politically correct (it won't be). If you read it expecting stories from around 1900, that might help. Some content might be more than a little surprising for modern readers.
February 4, 2023
Jack is the pinnacle of a white man failing upward by doing the bare minimum for other people.
Truthfully though, these a wonderful stories that I loved as a child and still enjoy as an adult. It’s a nice chunk of Southern cultural history (the good kind).
Four stars because some of the stories hit the same beats or feel like they aren’t quite different enough, so they get to be a bit obvious in their solutions.
It’s also nice to see that this character isn’t the all-knowing Holmes-like figure I recall, but rather a kid who got a ton of help from others and when he couldn’t get help, was passably clever enough to get by.
Favorite: Hardy Hardhead
Least favorite: Jack’s Hunting Trips
Truthfully though, these a wonderful stories that I loved as a child and still enjoy as an adult. It’s a nice chunk of Southern cultural history (the good kind).
Four stars because some of the stories hit the same beats or feel like they aren’t quite different enough, so they get to be a bit obvious in their solutions.
It’s also nice to see that this character isn’t the all-knowing Holmes-like figure I recall, but rather a kid who got a ton of help from others and when he couldn’t get help, was passably clever enough to get by.
Favorite: Hardy Hardhead
Least favorite: Jack’s Hunting Trips
January 6, 2022
Fantastic to sit and read out loud with my son. Fun language for reading verbally, maybe a bit confusing to modern day ears that aren't living in Appalachia but usually very easy to infer from the text. Fair bit of violence and chopping off of heads but with everything being so fantastical my son generally shrugged those concepts off. He fell into fits of giggles many a time while reading all these stories and he was entirely engaged for every one of them and then we've been discussing our favorite ones for the past week or so. Highly recommend.
December 18, 2022
A reinterpretation of many classic folk tales from the UK and continental Europe, "The Jack Tales" puts a decidedly Appalachian spin on "Jack And The Beanstalk", " Jack The Giant Killer", "The Bremen Town Musicians", and many more.
Written in the vernacular of the region, but still including elements of the originals, Jack encounters many " kings" on his wanderings, which feels pretty strange in the mountains of North Carolina.
It's still great fun to see Jack win out in the end through smarts and often, sheer luck.
Written in the vernacular of the region, but still including elements of the originals, Jack encounters many " kings" on his wanderings, which feels pretty strange in the mountains of North Carolina.
It's still great fun to see Jack win out in the end through smarts and often, sheer luck.
February 20, 2018
My son and I read these stories together at bedtime. I was fascinated by the history behind these Jack Tales as much as the actual stories themselves and my son (11 yrs) was captured by the adventure and fantasy in each tale. Tales about a boy named Jack have been passed down from generation to generation and this is one of the few books that collects those folktales, I highly recommend it to everyone young and old.
February 20, 2020
What a fun read! I read this book aloud to my son, and we had a great time. Jack’s adventures are almost all Americanized retellings of European fairy tales, and it was delightfully fun to figure out which ones connected. Since these stories were written in dialect, it is really best read aloud to get the full effect. Jack Tales is a gem of old Appalachian and American culture, and I’m so glad to have found out about this book.
November 22, 2020
My third grade teacher in NC read these to us in the 1960s and I thought they were the funniest stories I had ever heard. Thirty years later I had to search for the book so I could read it to my kids. I took it to school and read to their classes, but I could rarely get through a story without cracking up, tears running down my cheeks. Now 56 years after I first heard them I still think they’re the funniest stories I’ve ever heard.
December 29, 2021
Everyone has heard at least one Jack tale (involving a particular beanstalk), but the Appalachian everyman has so many more elements to his lore. Three stars because while the stories have some entertaining twists to them, and I appreciate Jack's attitude, the overarching theme of this anthology is murdering people to solve problems. That's authentic, but just isn't as compelling as when I was growing up.
July 19, 2022
Honestly, while the tales were interesting and sparked the imagination, I preferred this more in the light of scholarship and folk study than as a piece of entertainment. The tales themselves sometimes felt like they were missing something, but that makes them more interesting as objects of research. The notes on parallels to other tales at the end were fascinating.
March 31, 2023
A fun collection of folklore tales told in the voice of the time 100-150 years ago. I had never heard about Jack (this being early in my folklore, folktales exploration), but little did I know, Jack is a foundational folklore character. Pretty fun to read about this scrupulous, quickwitted, youngest of three boys. Just know what you're getting into with old language, etc.
June 18, 2019
These are fun. I read about half of them to Ben.
November 26, 2020
Great history of local folk tales
December 23, 2020
Simply some of the best story-telling around.
February 12, 2022
Important collection, but I can't say it is one I enjoyed.
December 17, 2022
Charming! Love folk tales
April 13, 2024
Love love love! Jack ends up putting Death in a bag and no one can die. Just amazing 👏
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2025
A book from childhood that brings old tales to life!
January 15, 2018
These tales are timeless. I remember them as a kid and enjoy them as an adult.
March 16, 2016
These are a series of short stories told by Council Harmon’s family in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and recorded from their oral tradition.
I love the language in this book. If you concentrate you can almost hear someone’s Virginian grandfather telling you these stories as if he’d been there and saw Jack do it all. And I love Jack: lazy, accident-prone, and with questionable morals, he’s also clever, generous to strangers and above all very lucky. Jack’s the opposite of the ideal American man who works hard and makes something of himself. He’ll do anything to avoid working a lick (he lies, thieves, cheats), but he always shares what he has and he never refuses an adventure and somehow he ends up with sacks of gold and the king’s daughter’s hand in marriage. It’s irresistible.
Many of these tales will be familiar, though you may know them with other protagonists (like Jack and the Varmints aka the Brave Tailor), and of course a version of Jack and Bean Trees is there. However, other stories are uniquely Southern. Definitely worth the read.
I love the language in this book. If you concentrate you can almost hear someone’s Virginian grandfather telling you these stories as if he’d been there and saw Jack do it all. And I love Jack: lazy, accident-prone, and with questionable morals, he’s also clever, generous to strangers and above all very lucky. Jack’s the opposite of the ideal American man who works hard and makes something of himself. He’ll do anything to avoid working a lick (he lies, thieves, cheats), but he always shares what he has and he never refuses an adventure and somehow he ends up with sacks of gold and the king’s daughter’s hand in marriage. It’s irresistible.
Many of these tales will be familiar, though you may know them with other protagonists (like Jack and the Varmints aka the Brave Tailor), and of course a version of Jack and Bean Trees is there. However, other stories are uniquely Southern. Definitely worth the read.
March 3, 2023
The stories in this anthology tell of resourceful young Jack and his strange adventures, with everything from multi-headed giants to a surprising number of kings for rural America. Jack is a consistent character throughout the stories, though many of the tales originated in different places. The Southern dialect used to narrate the stories made me feel more immersed in the setting, and Jack is always entertaining. But many of the stories are either very similar to each other or clearly versions of European tales like "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "The Musicians of Bremen" adapted to an Appalachian setting. That being said, there are still some more memorable stories in the book. My favorites are "Big Jack and Little Jack", "Jack and the King's Girl", "Jack and the North West Wind", and "Soldier Jack", which is a sobering but oddly poignant ending to the collection.
February 23, 2014
This is a topic that I love and look into from time to time. These are so different than the tales of chivalry and knitehood. Jack, the rascally character, gains his endeavors by trickery, cheating, luck, or whatever works. He is not highly born but a poor mountain lad who faces giants, devils, and cruelty. There is no code for his behavior, just survival. I love this oral tradition in literature, and though these tales were compiled in the early part of the twentieth century, their preservation is important.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews