On these pages we meet adventurous princes, romantic princesses, wily peasants, tricky animals--and an abundance of monsters, djinns, gods, goddesses, and powerful magicians. In colorful, exotic settings reminiscent of The Arabian Nights, brave heroes and virtuous heroines triumph over the forces of evil, often with fantastical or comic results. These folktales, collected orally in the desert state of Rajasthan in 1986-87, are eloquent reflections of the great cultural traditions of India, and are stories that bring enchantment to audiences everywhere.

Features folktales with motifs that appear in European stories, but are thought to have originated in India.

Three handsome and clever brothers compete to find the world's most unusual gift. Includes a note on doing good deeds, or mitzvot, and discusses the symbolism of the pomegranate in Judaism.

A lady who loves pomegranates meets the bard who brought the fruit into her country, and discovers his terrible secret. A Japanese peasant saves a magical princess and becomes a Prince in the mysterious land of Horai...at a terrible price. Alexander Hamilton senses a ghostly presence as he prepares for his final duel. A pirate captain must intimidate a sea serpent long enough for his men to find a way to kill it...Collected here together for the first time, are Tia Baden's mythic tales of love, honor, and revenge.

A collection of magical Italian folk and fairy tales—most in English for the first time The Pomegranates and Other Modern Italian Fairy Tales presents twenty magical stories published between 1875 and 1914, following Italy’s political unification. In those decades of political and social change, folklorists collected fairy tales from many regions of the country while influential writers invented original narratives in standard Italian, drawing on traditional tales in local dialects, and translated others from France. This collection features a range of these entertaining jewels from such authors as Carlo Collodi, most celebrated for the novel Pinocchio, and Domenico Comparetti, regarded as the Italian Grimm, to Grazia Deledda, the only Italian woman to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature. With one exception, all of these tales are appearing in English for the first time. The stories in this volume are linked by themes of metamorphosis: a man turns into a lion, a dove, and an ant; a handsome youth emerges from a pig’s body; and three lovely women rise out of the rinds of pomegranates. There are also more introspective transformations: a self-absorbed princess learns about manners, a melancholy prince finds joy again, and a complacent young woman discovers gratitude. Cristina Mazzoni provides a comprehensive introduction that situates the tales in their cultural and historical context. The collection also includes period illustrations and biographical notes about the authors. Filled with adventures, supernatural and fantastic events, and brave and flawed protagonists, The Pomegranates and Other Modern Italian Fairy Tales will delight, surprise, and astonish.