Brilliant selection of enchanting Russian fairy/folk tales. ( )

After I read the wonderful collection of Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida, also edited and selected by Robert Chandler, I snapped up this one. "Magic tales" include folk tales, and this book contains real folk tales collected by folklorists from around Russia, as well as versions of magic tales as created by noted writers, including Pushkin, Teffi, Bazhov, and Platonov. I am a Platonov fan, and I was most taken by his tales (or perhaps, because I read them last, I am most under their spell, as I read this book off and on over the course of six weeks or so).

Chandler notes in his introduction that magic tales, in their original folk versions, way back when, were often filled with sex and violence, and so were restricted to men. The versions that have come down to us in the west as fairy tales for children were stripped of much of this.

Animals play a huge role in these stories, often seeking help from people. The people who help them in turn gain their help in magical situations. Often, there is a good sister and a bad sister; often there are groups of three brothers or sisters in which the first two fail and the third succeeds because she listens to the animals or old ladies, who may or may not be Baba Yagas (the witch equivalents in Russian tales). Baba Yagas are so important in Russian folklore that there is an essay on them at the end of this book, which also contains copious notes. Often too, people must travel long distances, and often seem to do so magically. And there are forest spirits and mountain spirits. Class differences also play a role, in the sense of poor peasants and rich tsars (there seem to be tsars for every region, not one tsar over all of Russia).

I enjoyed this book, although not as much as the previous collection, as I don't have as big an interest in magic tales as I do in Russian fiction overall. I probably would also have gotten more out of it if I hadn't dipped in and out of it. As it is, I preferred the versions created by authors to the versions collected by folklorists, although I found some of them quite striking. They probably would be more of interest, in general, to people who are fascinated by fairy tales.