The Iron Wolf

by Richard Adams

NEW HARD TO FIND SOFTCOVER COLLECTIBLE.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Animals, Folklore, Mythology, Classics

212 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Adams was born in Newbury, Berkshire. From 1933 until 1938 he was educated at Bradfield College. In 1938 he went up to Worcester College, Oxford to read Modern History. On 3 September 1939 Neville Chamberlain announced that the United Kingdom was at war with Germany. In 1940 Adams joined the British Army, in which he served until 1946. He received a class B discharge enabling him to return to Worcester to continue his studies for a further two years (1946-48). He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1948 and of Master of Arts in 1953.

He was a senior civil servant who worked as an Assistant Secretary for the Department of Agriculture, later part of the Department of the Environment, from 1948 to 1974. Since 1974, following publication of his second novel, Shardik, he has been a full-time author.

He originally began telling the story of Watership Down to his two daughters, Juliet and Rosamund, and they insisted he publish it as a book. It took two years to write and was rejected by thirteen publishers. When Watership Down was finally published, it sold over a million copies in record time in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Watership Down has become a modern classic and won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972. To date, Adams' best-known work has sold over 50 million copies world-wide, earning him more than all his other books put together.

As of 1982, he was President of the RSPCA.

He also contested the 1983 general election, standing as an Independent Conservative in the Spelthorne constituency on a platform of opposition to fox hunting.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of retold folktales from around the world. Richard Adams is a very fine writer and the stories are well done. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because of the frame system he chose to work in. Each folk tale is "told" by much more modern characters who are relating the tales to children or friends. In an effort to make the 'telling' seem realistic, there are occasional interruptions by life events, comments by the listeners etc. These interruptions are only seen via the responses of the story teller, but--to me--they often seemed to interrupt the flow of the tale and make it far too clear that I was reading a contrivance. I would have far preferred a straight telling of the tales without the frame. The tales themselves were very strong.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in 1980s after Watership its the illustrations as well the story line that's a bit of magic for all ages not just adults a perfect book for anyone

[Anne Patkau · Rating 2 out of 5]

19 fantasy folk tales collected from many lands and times entertain in originals. But author is no Scheherezade, so lowers, quibbles rating. Veddy British Richard Adams retells as silly cutesy pretentious narrators in phony ethnic dialects. Political incorrectness overflows in Esquimaut and round-eye devils. Plus, he shamelessly plugs his Watership Down novel.

Paintings by Yvonne Gilbert of wildlife, peasants, and nobles flow with color and life more than drawings by Jennifer Campbell. Most morals reward the righteous, some the tricksters, some sad. We do have red-breasted robins in North America, so I don't like the inaccurate out-of-place 'blood of Jesus' tale.

[Geoffery Crescent · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Iron Wolf is a real curio. The art by Yvonne Gilbert and Jennifer Campbell is stunningly beautiful and the short stories are entertaining, but the framing devices Richard Adams uses for each one is utterly distracting. According to the dust jacket, 'in order to preserve the immediacy and directness of authentic folk story-telling, each of the nineteen stories is presented by an imagined narrator to one or more hearers at a particular time and place.' Sometimes all this amounts to is a brief paragraph prior to the story making it clear that a mother is settling her child with a tale, other times stories are liberally peppered with imagined school-masters shouting, 'SMITHERS! STOP CHEWING GUM YOU IMBECILE!!!' Or words to that effect. It's bizarre. I can understand Adams' need to re-create the authenticity of a live story as much as possible, but some things are better off lost in translation. In any case, if you decided to read these stories aloud, you'd end up having to skip over those imaginary inserts altogether or risk alienating (and insulting) your audience.

Also, who is this book aimed at? One of the colour plates depicts a naked woman about to be raped by a giant eel and one of the short stories' framing devices is a couple of newly-weds having a canoodle, with direct references to how hard the husband's penis gets at certain parts of the story. Someone really needs to have a word with Adams' publicist. The bunny murder was bad enough but this needs to be on a different shelf for sure...

[Amber&Silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of folk tales from all around the world, each of one told and framed as if it was narrated by a different character - a parent to their child, a soldier to his comrade, a local to a foreigner, a student to his classmate. Although this scheme becomes repetitive after a while, I liked the various "frames" enough (especially the one with the student trying to figure out the cube roots).
The tales themselves vary, some I liked more, some less, and some reminded me of the tales about El-ahrairà. But Adams has a unique, delightful narrating style, and each story flows wonderfully. All of them are ideal goodnight stories.

On a side note, I bought my old, second-hand paperback edition of this book online, and it came with the greatest gift: a signature by Richard Adams and a dedication to Michelle. Richard Adams wrote my favorite book ever ("Watership down") and this surprise made my day.
I don't know who Michelle is or was, but she can be sure I will treasure this copy and enjoy as much as she did.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

In some ways, talking animal tales (often fables) are some of the earliest etiological tales. They may not be historical narratives, but they indirectly capture some of the causes of human frailty, human friction, and human motivation. The Iron Wolf and other stories is a collection curated by Richard Adams, best known for his classic Watership Down where rabbits form a society (and the inspiration for a role-playing game called Bunnies & Burrows. He carefully defends these stories (often considered “just for children”) in his introduction, “The Unbroken Web.” He writes, “They have meanings which we need, accept, and welcome, and the very fact that they are only partially realistic is the essence of their attraction. Dreams are the individual’s folk-tales and folk-tales are collective dreams.” (p. 10)

A particularly nice aspect of Adams’ approach in this anthology is that he recognizes the place of the storyteller in shaping the stories (p. 11). So, rather than simply recount the stories which he has researched and creatively shaped and edited, he sets up each folk-tale with its own storyteller. One such narrator is a cockney nanny using the tale as a stern warning to her charges. But don’t get the idea that these are stories for children as another tale, ostensibly told by a French fishing guide in Polynesia, has an illustration with full-frontal nudity and a story of sexual betrayal. Other narrators include: a choir teacher, a father driving on a trip, a public house bartender, a British colonial officer, a newlywed wife, an Asian mom, a Latin master, and old Eskimo (Esquimau is the variant spelling used by Adams), a World War II soldier, and more.

It’s amazing that in such a collection, I had only heard two of the stories before (the crow stealing the daylight (sometimes a raven) and the peasant who outwitted a king). So, I very much enjoyed the idea of a “mouse-o-naut” (blame me for the word I just made up, not Adams) who goes to the moon, a crimson parrot who could tell his owner how to outwit many humans, a giant eel cuckolded by his lover, a supernatural “black dog” (“Moddey Dhoo”) portending justice, a prince who makes a poor choice, and a nosey gossip who discovers an uncanny resemblance with a woodpecker.

To make things better, my copy is a beautiful little hardbound book with color plates by Yvonne Gilbert which remind me of the Flemish-Dutch schools of painting. But even though it also includes some black and white line drawings by Jennifer Campbell, these sketches lack the detail, definition, and shadowy mood of Gilbert’s work. To be honest, I don’t usually enjoy anthologies, but the author and the artwork intrigued me enough to pick it up. And, I am very glad I did. Again, The Iron Wolf and other stories looks like a children’s book, but it is a beautiful experience for those adults fortunate enough to overlook its “camouflage” and discover its rich content.

[Brian Moloney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard Adams' retelling of a 19 folk tales from various cultures is.... well, ok I guess. The stories themselves are varied in terms of country and culture of origin, and I appreciate what the author was trying to do by presenting each as a story told in the first person. One problem is that we never hear the interlocutor, so the narration is a little stilted (along the lines of "Do you want to hear a story? Oh, you do, do you?") and there's quite a bit of casual racism that would ensure the collection would never be published today without some major revisions, and calls from the editor to the writer asking what the hell he was thinking by having, among other things, a Chinese lady referring to all English people as foreign devils. The collection would also have benefited from introductory or end notes on the genesis of each fable. That said, it is an easy read, and each piece is only a few pages long, making it perfect for short bus journeys or when waiting for friends who are always a little bit late.

[Tahlia C · Rating 1 out of 5]

And by "finished" I mean I just cannot continue. The racial stereotyping is too much.

[Robin Helweg-Larsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of very diverse stories-within-stories. The heart of each story is framed by an intro and wrap-up, each in the language of one person talking to another - a mother to child in the English countryside, a WW2 soldier trying to keep another awake, an old cossack cadging a drink off a travelling Russian count, an older Inuit explaining to a younger one why he mustn't shoot a crow... the stories have authentic voices matching the diversity of their cultural backgrounds. It is a curiosity, and a tour de force in its own right. (Occasionally a little dated... Adams is very 20th century, very English, with hints of the sexism and class-consciousness that pervades his more famous 'Watership Down'.)

[Lone Wolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of folk tales from various cultures, re-told by Adams. Some of these are entertaining, some boring, some outright strange. What spoils them somewhat is the framing device – each story is presented as being told by a different, first-person narrator reciting it to their listeners. I disliked this as I felt it distracted from the stories themselves, especially when the narrators would stop part-way through their telling to interject something to those supposedly listening.

I feel I should also point out that despite the cover proclaiming this book to be “for all ages,” it certainly isn’t suitable for young children. The very first story features a woman whose lover is a giant eel, and who begs men to have sex with her when she leaves him.

[Steven Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah, not great, which is a shame. There are some good myths/ legends/ fairy tales in here, but they're so surrounded by a framework of a character telling the tale to someone else - and these surrounding parts are what draws it down. A nice, illustrated, hardcopy version, but not a book I'm going to bother reading again.

[Elija · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved his retelling of the folk tales and it was refreshing to read folk like stories from the perspective of one hearing them real time and listening to the comments made for “my actions”. Richard Adam’s has a beautiful way of describe things and reading the stories before bed just reminded me of childhood and calmed me down

[Debbyanne Southwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book! It took me a little while to follow along with it as there are different stories and set in many places but found it interesting and all kinds of creepy,sad funny experiences.

[Wyktor Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent folk tales from around the world, including a Polynesian one

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated book and folk stories told by a master in a conversational style from a diverse set of cultures.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this as a child, I think it was quite moving

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of folk tales

[Angelica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing and entertaining folk tales!

[Liberty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writing the stories as if someone is telling them to you didn't work for me at all.

[Nate Crow · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of all time.

Oral traditions are meant to be organic. They should be intimate and personal. They should grow and change slowly over time and from teller to teller, yet retain their core. They should be passed on.

Yet they can and do get lost if they are not written down. We live in a modern era with the written word and so many stories to know. There in lies the conundrum: Stories need to be told to stay alive, but they need to be written down so as not to be lost.

Richard Addams resolves this conflict by retelling some of the greatest folk tales and legends from cultures across the wold in a personal and intimate way, as if they are being told to you out loud by a master storyteller. Each story is framed by a meta-story of who the storyteller is, who he is telling the story to and why.

Picture the Princess Bride novel but WITH the grandfather narrating it included in the stories.

ADD: This collection of short stories is also known as The Unbroken Web and is sometimes published under that name.

[Lara]

I saw this (London first edition) and lusted after it today at Books Unlimited on Broadway. It has the most incredible color illustrations.

[Jess Van Dyne-Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, spellbinding stories. Although marketed for younger readers, I think you need to be an adult to get all the innuendos - and understand all the different voices brought together in this.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

[Tym · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was hit and miss with me, but some stories made the book well worth the read

[Michael Nalbone · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read of Fairy Tales.

[Rosangela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ho la stessa versione in italiano. Credo che oggi sia introvabile. Molto belle le storie narrate. Ancora più belle le illustrazioni.

[M. Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy Adams' work, especially 'The Plague Dogs,' but was a little disappointed with this collection. Primarily, I suppose, because they're not really his stories but, rather, adaptations of various folk-tales from around the world. As with all collections of this sort the stories are a little hit and miss but it does mean that there's a little something for everyone; personally I prefer tales about the animals themselves such as 'how the nightingale got its song' over tales about humans with animals in but it's all very subjective. I feel that the attempt to make these part of an oral tradition with the framing sequence for each story didn't really work, some of it was downright clumsy, but understand why Adams did it. An enjoyable read, overall.

[Snail]

Lovely re-tellings of folk stories from around the world. Some were vaguely familiar in the way that folk stories are. At first I was hesitant with the narration style, but reading along one story at a time each on a different night made me appreciate it much more. I ended up enjoying the short preludes to each story, the 'atmosphere' created before the tales began.
My favorite stories were:
Mice in the Corn
The Crimson Parrot
How Long Will You Live?
Back of the Moon