Fairies in Nineteenth-Century Art and Literature

'Nicola Bown's compelling study brilliantly challenges preconceptions about fairies and fairyland; it will transform all subsequent thinking on the topic. Her book is packed with bold, fresh readings of poems, pictures, natural history and philosophy, with examples ranging from Keats' charm'd magic casements, to the famous case of the Cottingley fairy photographs.' Marina Warner 'Bown has accumulated much fascinating material and orders it well; she is an enthusiast who has managed to avoid the twin pitfalls of sentimentality and defensive irony.' The Times Literary Supplement 'In this delightful work it is argued persuasively that the Victorians grasped at fairies, indeed made a cult of them, in appalled reaction to the horrid, mechanised modernity they had built ... Bown has triumphantly overcome the handicap of being an academic to produce a warmly readable and diverting survey of this weirdly melancholy cultural phenomenon.' The Guardian 'A rich, thoughtful feast of a book ... an engaging and incisive study that finally rescues its often scorned subject from sentiment and misery.' The Guardian 'This is not a survey of fairy painting or painters; the focus is on a few key items, but to have this richly imaginative genre place in the context of very wide reading is highly illuminating.' Art Newspaper 'This is a richly textured book.' Notes & Queries