THE GOLDFINCH GARDEN
By
It contains seven of the romantically tinged, exquisitely detailed fairy tales girls love. It measures up to the other collections of original stories by this folklorist--The Faun and the Woodcutter's Daughter (1964) and The Lady and the Linden Tree. Each story is distinctive and the subjects range from cabbages (""The Cabbage that had no Heart"" was laughed at by all the other cabbages and ignored by its farmer, but its flowers made a queen out of a poor, plain girl) to kings (""Bertrade and Dominic"" were heirs to two historically enemy countries; they had all the attributes of starcrossed lovers but their hopelessness rescued them), and all manners of enchanters and enchantments. They are offered with a storyteller's flair for straightforward narration and refined description.