National Dreams: The Remaking of Fairy Tales in Nineteenth Century England

National Dreams traces the introduction of the fairy tale tradition into England. England, evidently choosing to believe that it had Industrialized itself out of folklore, was eager to embrace the traditions of Germany, Ireland, India and from the Norse. The writer uses a narratological approach to determine the relationship between the writer and the peasant or middle class authors of early fairy tale collections. I really like that Schacker makes ample use of pictures. The illustrations used in the early editions reveal the prejudices of the English. Obviously there are some really interesting interactions between the different societies involved, keeping in mind that England had colonized Ireland and India at this time, and these are evident in the fairy tale collections. There are also interesting interactions between social classes, as the tellers are peasantry dying out and the partakers are usually bourgeois or wealthier.
Overall, a really fun book that I was really interested in, but the writing was a little dry and occasionally hard to follow. I got a lot of great ideas about format from it too, so I’m getting more excited about my own project.