A delight to read / Un placer a leer, 23 Jun 2008
I am so pleased to have found this book again, I used to own it once before and enjoyed its easy style but I gave it away to a South American friend who was learning English (she loves it!).

This book is so expertly executed that even if you have only a modest level of Spanish, it will strengthen what you've already got, provide you with new words and encourage you onto more.

It's set around 18 stories or myths or folklores from Spain's past, starting with the oldest first and working towards the newest last, with the Spanish and English presented on facing pages.

But each story is introduced by a one paragraph abstract which helps sets the scene for the story that follows. And each of the stories in turn are interesting and engaging in their own right.

Such is my confidence in this book, as well as reordering it, I'm also ordering the Latin American and Mexican versions from the same series at the same time.

If only all parallel books were made like this.


A good book for all stages, 24 Jun 2003
This book is not only a real help in coming to grips with a new language but also useful for those wishing to improve accuracy in written Spanish. Having the English translation next to the Spanish text means that your'e not constantly looking up dictionaries, so you can actually enjoy reading the stories. The stories show the rich cultural and historical side of this vast and interesting country, making the learning process a whole lot more practical too.

A delight to read / Un placer a leer, 23 Jun 2008
I am so pleased to have found this book again, I used to own it once before and enjoyed its easy style but I gave it away to a South American friend who was learning English (she loves it!).

This book is so expertly executed that even if you have only a modest level of Spanish, it will strengthen what you've already got, provide you with new words and encourage you onto more.

It's set around 18 stories or myths or folklores from Spain's past, starting with the oldest first and working towards the newest last, with the Spanish and English presented on facing pages.

But each story is introduced by a one paragraph abstract which helps sets the scene for the story that follows. And each of the stories in turn are interesting and engaging in their own right.

Such is my confidence in this book, as well as reordering it, I'm also ordering the Latin American and Mexican versions from the same series at the same time.

If only all parallel books were made like this.


A good book for all stages, 24 Jun 2003
This book is not only a real help in coming to grips with a new language but also useful for those wishing to improve accuracy in written Spanish. Having the English translation next to the Spanish text means that your'e not constantly looking up dictionaries, so you can actually enjoy reading the stories. The stories show the rich cultural and historical side of this vast and interesting country, making the learning process a whole lot more practical too.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, 13 Nov 2008
I must say the author has made a good and funny translation of what would have considered harmless children's stories into modern day PC propaganda. What I will say is that it did get a tiny bit repetitive but otherwise it is a good read. Highly recommended for all those who remember the good old days of our children's stories

For everyone not PC repressed, 15 Dec 2007
For any Squaddies or ex-Squaddies who might read this review -

I swamped myself - you have been warned

Funny - or not?, 19 Aug 2007
I found the first two or three amusing - but after that it became just too predictable and, I confess, I never managed to finish it!

Oppression, Alienation, and the Three Little Pigs, 29 Dec 2005
Bedtime stories are probably among the oldest forms of tale-telling there is in human history. Before epic poetry, before political speeches, before religious tales of awe, there were people sitting around campfires and living in caves, caring for their young, speaking soothing sounds to their young.

Bedtime stories were quickly discerned to be an excellent way in which to reinforce not only language skills, but culture and accepted morality, too.

So, why is it that fairy tales, the more-modern equivalent of these stories, became canonised and thus immutable by the likes of the Brothers Grimm, etc.? Just what does Hansel & Gretel or the Little Red Riding Hood mean for us today, beyond being good stories?

And, are they good stories? Should we teach children there are houses made of candy and cookies out in the woods? This is the kind of question addressed in this delightful little collection, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories

Now, before you get your knickers in a twist, realise that this is all in fun, but, as it is fun, highlights certain important points nonetheless. Political correctness can be stretched to the limits of absurdity, like almost anything carried to and beyond its logical limits. That is not to say that political correctness is all bad. But, we do approach a time when nothing can be said for fear of offending someone somewhere at some time.

James Finn Garner highlights this in his introduction, by saying if he has inadvertently displayed any sexist, racist, culturalist, nationalist, regionalist, ageist, lookist, ableist, sizeist, speciesist, intellectualist, socioeconomicist, ethnocentrist, phallocentrist, heteropatriarchalist, or other type of bias as yet unnamed, he apologizes and encourages your suggestions for rectification.

In this volume, we have the following stories, revised and updated for the modern reader:

- Little Red Riding Hood
- The Emperor's New Clothes
- The Three Little Pigs
- Rumpelstiltskin
- The Three Codependent Goats Gruff
- Rapunzel
- Cinderella
- Goldilocks
- Snow White
- Chicken Little
- The Frog Prince
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- The Pied Piper of Hamlin

I shall recount part of the tale of the Frog Prince below, so you can get a sense of the style of the rest of the stories in this book, which present Little Red Riding Hood teaming up with the wolf against the violence of the hunter, the three pigs living in a harmonious collective, and of course, the frog prince: Once, there was a young princess who, when she grew tired of beating her head against the male power structure at her castle, would relax by walking into the woods and sitting beside a small pond. There she would amuse herself by tossing her favourite golden ball up and down and pondering the role of the eco-feminist in her era.

Well, to cut a not-so-long story even shorter (and to avoid infringements by limiting my take to a fair-use length!), the princess and the frog agree to terms, but when the frog approaches for a kiss, the princess feels harassed; however, she relents, and the frog transforms into a businessman who wants to make the pond into a golf course and condo development... The princess eventually decided that she really didn't need a prince after all, particularly one like this, and turns him back into a frog.

'And while someone might have noticed that the frog was gone, no one ever missed the real estate developer.'

Of course, apologies are due to real estate developers, those who wear tacky golf clothing, and those caught in an inter-species spell.

Fun for children of all adult ages.

BRILLIANTLY FUNNY, 06 Jan 2003
This book is for anyone who likes parodys or mocking the political systems. it is a 'value for money' book,as itwill have you laughing all the time (due to its humorous twists and phrases.) The book is composed of several 're-looks' at popular Fairy-Tales and Nursery Stories. I thoroughly recommend this book for everyone, as although it is based on Fairy Tales; its updated twists,endings and political humor makes it more adult- but keeping it light and not boring.

A delight to read / Un placer a leer, 23 Jun 2008
I am so pleased to have found this book again, I used to own it once before and enjoyed its easy style but I gave it away to a South American friend who was learning English (she loves it!).

This book is so expertly executed that even if you have only a modest level of Spanish, it will strengthen what you've already got, provide you with new words and encourage you onto more.

It's set around 18 stories or myths or folklores from Spain's past, starting with the oldest first and working towards the newest last, with the Spanish and English presented on facing pages.

But each story is introduced by a one paragraph abstract which helps sets the scene for the story that follows. And each of the stories in turn are interesting and engaging in their own right.

Such is my confidence in this book, as well as reordering it, I'm also ordering the Latin American and Mexican versions from the same series at the same time.

If only all parallel books were made like this.


A good book for all stages, 24 Jun 2003
This book is not only a real help in coming to grips with a new language but also useful for those wishing to improve accuracy in written Spanish. Having the English translation next to the Spanish text means that your'e not constantly looking up dictionaries, so you can actually enjoy reading the stories. The stories show the rich cultural and historical side of this vast and interesting country, making the learning process a whole lot more practical too.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, 13 Nov 2008
I must say the author has made a good and funny translation of what would have considered harmless children's stories into modern day PC propaganda. What I will say is that it did get a tiny bit repetitive but otherwise it is a good read. Highly recommended for all those who remember the good old days of our children's stories

For everyone not PC repressed, 15 Dec 2007
For any Squaddies or ex-Squaddies who might read this review -

I swamped myself - you have been warned

Funny - or not?, 19 Aug 2007
I found the first two or three amusing - but after that it became just too predictable and, I confess, I never managed to finish it!

Oppression, Alienation, and the Three Little Pigs, 29 Dec 2005
Bedtime stories are probably among the oldest forms of tale-telling there is in human history. Before epic poetry, before political speeches, before religious tales of awe, there were people sitting around campfires and living in caves, caring for their young, speaking soothing sounds to their young.

Bedtime stories were quickly discerned to be an excellent way in which to reinforce not only language skills, but culture and accepted morality, too.

So, why is it that fairy tales, the more-modern equivalent of these stories, became canonised and thus immutable by the likes of the Brothers Grimm, etc.? Just what does Hansel & Gretel or the Little Red Riding Hood mean for us today, beyond being good stories?

And, are they good stories? Should we teach children there are houses made of candy and cookies out in the woods? This is the kind of question addressed in this delightful little collection, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories

Now, before you get your knickers in a twist, realise that this is all in fun, but, as it is fun, highlights certain important points nonetheless. Political correctness can be stretched to the limits of absurdity, like almost anything carried to and beyond its logical limits. That is not to say that political correctness is all bad. But, we do approach a time when nothing can be said for fear of offending someone somewhere at some time.

James Finn Garner highlights this in his introduction, by saying if he has inadvertently displayed any sexist, racist, culturalist, nationalist, regionalist, ageist, lookist, ableist, sizeist, speciesist, intellectualist, socioeconomicist, ethnocentrist, phallocentrist, heteropatriarchalist, or other type of bias as yet unnamed, he apologizes and encourages your suggestions for rectification.

In this volume, we have the following stories, revised and updated for the modern reader:

- Little Red Riding Hood
- The Emperor's New Clothes
- The Three Little Pigs
- Rumpelstiltskin
- The Three Codependent Goats Gruff
- Rapunzel
- Cinderella
- Goldilocks
- Snow White
- Chicken Little
- The Frog Prince
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- The Pied Piper of Hamlin

I shall recount part of the tale of the Frog Prince below, so you can get a sense of the style of the rest of the stories in this book, which present Little Red Riding Hood teaming up with the wolf against the violence of the hunter, the three pigs living in a harmonious collective, and of course, the frog prince: Once, there was a young princess who, when she grew tired of beating her head against the male power structure at her castle, would relax by walking into the woods and sitting beside a small pond. There she would amuse herself by tossing her favourite golden ball up and down and pondering the role of the eco-feminist in her era.

Well, to cut a not-so-long story even shorter (and to avoid infringements by limiting my take to a fair-use length!), the princess and the frog agree to terms, but when the frog approaches for a kiss, the princess feels harassed; however, she relents, and the frog transforms into a businessman who wants to make the pond into a golf course and condo development... The princess eventually decided that she really didn't need a prince after all, particularly one like this, and turns him back into a frog.

'And while someone might have noticed that the frog was gone, no one ever missed the real estate developer.'

Of course, apologies are due to real estate developers, those who wear tacky golf clothing, and those caught in an inter-species spell.

Fun for children of all adult ages.

BRILLIANTLY FUNNY, 06 Jan 2003
This book is for anyone who likes parodys or mocking the political systems. it is a 'value for money' book,as itwill have you laughing all the time (due to its humorous twists and phrases.) The book is composed of several 're-looks' at popular Fairy-Tales and Nursery Stories. I thoroughly recommend this book for everyone, as although it is based on Fairy Tales; its updated twists,endings and political humor makes it more adult- but keeping it light and not boring.

Rubbish, 26 Jun 2007
Don't waste your money, this book is very very poor to say the least.
One star is really one too many!!

Erotic???? No Way, 18 Jun 2007
In a word, this book is dreadful! Sorry for all those who have said they enjoyed it but this book didn't even get me luke warm let alone hot. I kept waiting for each story to start then it ended. Yes, short 5 minute reads but nothing of any substance in them to read. Save your money.

Short and Sweet, 26 Feb 2007
A very enjoyable book with bite size stories that don't waffle about with excess padding. The storyline is established and cuts to the action very quickly. It is a collection of erotic stories by different writers so each has a different style and feel about it. That is not a bad thing and on the whole most of the stories are excellent. The odd one, perhaps leaves you feeling a bit short, you feel they could have taken the bit in their teeth (or something else) and taken the story on a bit further, but on the whole it is very good. I found that it was a good book to open for a few minutes read to perk you up for the day. I particularly liked THE BOUNTY OF SUMMER by Carol Queen, that was very erotic story. I would highly recommend the book. Another book I would recommend that you have a look at, which has perhaps a stronger sexual content, is 100 PERCENT EROTICA by Suzie Van Aartman. This book could well become a classic in my opinion.

The rating says it all!, 01 Feb 2007
After reading the recommendations I ordered this book with high expectations only to be completely underwhelmed! This book wouldn't even shock or arouse my Gran. If you are a fan of Nancy Friday and some Black Lace books this one isn't for you.

Short and Sweet, 28 Nov 2004
I liked these erotic stories very much. There was something for everyone in this book (there are 35 different and unique stories). The stories are very short but they are interesting. I felt that they could have gone a little farther than they went, they were a little tame for my tastes, but they were still a lot of fun to read and I would recommend this as a gift for any woman who enjoys reading erotica or romance. And for an even more erotic read I would recommend Nancy Madore's "Bedtime Stories for Women," which re-tells fairy tales in a very erotic and exciting format.

A delight to read / Un placer a leer, 23 Jun 2008
I am so pleased to have found this book again, I used to own it once before and enjoyed its easy style but I gave it away to a South American friend who was learning English (she loves it!).

This book is so expertly executed that even if you have only a modest level of Spanish, it will strengthen what you've already got, provide you with new words and encourage you onto more.

It's set around 18 stories or myths or folklores from Spain's past, starting with the oldest first and working towards the newest last, with the Spanish and English presented on facing pages.

But each story is introduced by a one paragraph abstract which helps sets the scene for the story that follows. And each of the stories in turn are interesting and engaging in their own right.

Such is my confidence in this book, as well as reordering it, I'm also ordering the Latin American and Mexican versions from the same series at the same time.

If only all parallel books were made like this.


A good book for all stages, 24 Jun 2003
This book is not only a real help in coming to grips with a new language but also useful for those wishing to improve accuracy in written Spanish. Having the English translation next to the Spanish text means that your'e not constantly looking up dictionaries, so you can actually enjoy reading the stories. The stories show the rich cultural and historical side of this vast and interesting country, making the learning process a whole lot more practical too.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, 13 Nov 2008
I must say the author has made a good and funny translation of what would have considered harmless children's stories into modern day PC propaganda. What I will say is that it did get a tiny bit repetitive but otherwise it is a good read. Highly recommended for all those who remember the good old days of our children's stories

For everyone not PC repressed, 15 Dec 2007
For any Squaddies or ex-Squaddies who might read this review -

I swamped myself - you have been warned

Funny - or not?, 19 Aug 2007
I found the first two or three amusing - but after that it became just too predictable and, I confess, I never managed to finish it!

Oppression, Alienation, and the Three Little Pigs, 29 Dec 2005
Bedtime stories are probably among the oldest forms of tale-telling there is in human history. Before epic poetry, before political speeches, before religious tales of awe, there were people sitting around campfires and living in caves, caring for their young, speaking soothing sounds to their young.

Bedtime stories were quickly discerned to be an excellent way in which to reinforce not only language skills, but culture and accepted morality, too.

So, why is it that fairy tales, the more-modern equivalent of these stories, became canonised and thus immutable by the likes of the Brothers Grimm, etc.? Just what does Hansel & Gretel or the Little Red Riding Hood mean for us today, beyond being good stories?

And, are they good stories? Should we teach children there are houses made of candy and cookies out in the woods? This is the kind of question addressed in this delightful little collection, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories

Now, before you get your knickers in a twist, realise that this is all in fun, but, as it is fun, highlights certain important points nonetheless. Political correctness can be stretched to the limits of absurdity, like almost anything carried to and beyond its logical limits. That is not to say that political correctness is all bad. But, we do approach a time when nothing can be said for fear of offending someone somewhere at some time.

James Finn Garner highlights this in his introduction, by saying if he has inadvertently displayed any sexist, racist, culturalist, nationalist, regionalist, ageist, lookist, ableist, sizeist, speciesist, intellectualist, socioeconomicist, ethnocentrist, phallocentrist, heteropatriarchalist, or other type of bias as yet unnamed, he apologizes and encourages your suggestions for rectification.

In this volume, we have the following stories, revised and updated for the modern reader:

- Little Red Riding Hood
- The Emperor's New Clothes
- The Three Little Pigs
- Rumpelstiltskin
- The Three Codependent Goats Gruff
- Rapunzel
- Cinderella
- Goldilocks
- Snow White
- Chicken Little
- The Frog Prince
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- The Pied Piper of Hamlin

I shall recount part of the tale of the Frog Prince below, so you can get a sense of the style of the rest of the stories in this book, which present Little Red Riding Hood teaming up with the wolf against the violence of the hunter, the three pigs living in a harmonious collective, and of course, the frog prince: Once, there was a young princess who, when she grew tired of beating her head against the male power structure at her castle, would relax by walking into the woods and sitting beside a small pond. There she would amuse herself by tossing her favourite golden ball up and down and pondering the role of the eco-feminist in her era.

Well, to cut a not-so-long story even shorter (and to avoid infringements by limiting my take to a fair-use length!), the princess and the frog agree to terms, but when the frog approaches for a kiss, the princess feels harassed; however, she relents, and the frog transforms into a businessman who wants to make the pond into a golf course and condo development... The princess eventually decided that she really didn't need a prince after all, particularly one like this, and turns him back into a frog.

'And while someone might have noticed that the frog was gone, no one ever missed the real estate developer.'

Of course, apologies are due to real estate developers, those who wear tacky golf clothing, and those caught in an inter-species spell.

Fun for children of all adult ages.

BRILLIANTLY FUNNY, 06 Jan 2003
This book is for anyone who likes parodys or mocking the political systems. it is a 'value for money' book,as itwill have you laughing all the time (due to its humorous twists and phrases.) The book is composed of several 're-looks' at popular Fairy-Tales and Nursery Stories. I thoroughly recommend this book for everyone, as although it is based on Fairy Tales; its updated twists,endings and political humor makes it more adult- but keeping it light and not boring.

Rubbish, 26 Jun 2007
Don't waste your money, this book is very very poor to say the least.
One star is really one too many!!

Erotic???? No Way, 18 Jun 2007
In a word, this book is dreadful! Sorry for all those who have said they enjoyed it but this book didn't even get me luke warm let alone hot. I kept waiting for each story to start then it ended. Yes, short 5 minute reads but nothing of any substance in them to read. Save your money.

Short and Sweet, 26 Feb 2007
A very enjoyable book with bite size stories that don't waffle about with excess padding. The storyline is established and cuts to the action very quickly. It is a collection of erotic stories by different writers so each has a different style and feel about it. That is not a bad thing and on the whole most of the stories are excellent. The odd one, perhaps leaves you feeling a bit short, you feel they could have taken the bit in their teeth (or something else) and taken the story on a bit further, but on the whole it is very good. I found that it was a good book to open for a few minutes read to perk you up for the day. I particularly liked THE BOUNTY OF SUMMER by Carol Queen, that was very erotic story. I would highly recommend the book. Another book I would recommend that you have a look at, which has perhaps a stronger sexual content, is 100 PERCENT EROTICA by Suzie Van Aartman. This book could well become a classic in my opinion.

The rating says it all!, 01 Feb 2007
After reading the recommendations I ordered this book with high expectations only to be completely underwhelmed! This book wouldn't even shock or arouse my Gran. If you are a fan of Nancy Friday and some Black Lace books this one isn't for you.

Short and Sweet, 28 Nov 2004
I liked these erotic stories very much. There was something for everyone in this book (there are 35 different and unique stories). The stories are very short but they are interesting. I felt that they could have gone a little farther than they went, they were a little tame for my tastes, but they were still a lot of fun to read and I would recommend this as a gift for any woman who enjoys reading erotica or romance. And for an even more erotic read I would recommend Nancy Madore's "Bedtime Stories for Women," which re-tells fairy tales in a very erotic and exciting format.

Sampling of Modernism, 24 Jul 2001
In the introduction, the editor, Malcom Bradbury, sets out his intention in producing this collection: one was to 'display...the achievement of some the best work produced by the strongest of...recent Britsh authors'; and the other, what Bradbury claims to be a more difficult task, to be 'broadly representative, so that the book might give not only a reasonable idea of the variety, but also the general trends and directions that have been taken by British fiction in the years since 1945'.

Bradbury succeeds in both attempts. This is not paritcularly surprising since this is Bradbury's territory. The collection contains works by some of the biggest names in British Literature: William Golding, Samuel Beckett, Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, John Fowles, William Trevor, Ian McEwan, and Kazuo Ishiguro--to name a few. The reason, Bradbury explains, is 'that many of the authors in this collection are our major writers of prose-fiction in general'.

Some of the stories are definitely modern, with self reflexiveness, lots of white spaces, single line paragraphs, whimsical subjects, and inscrutable titles; there are pseudo-stories, stories pretending to be something else when all the while the author is trying to tell a story without letting you know the story is being told since it was the 1960's or thereabouts when the writing a straight forward story was almost a shameful act. But none of this stories are the kind found at the height of modernism, where the reader had no idea what was being said. Each of these authors are aiming at something, something new and different, and not just for the sake of only new or different, (though there are a few that fall into that) but going beyond the traditional story and exploring the truth in new ways. There are also some 'straight' acts. And these are the ones that stay in your mind, unlike the others which are fun to read for the moment but which you then tend to forget. Of the former category is Kazuo Ishiguro's tightly written gem 'A Family Supper'. A simple story about the return of a son to his native Japan after his mother's death. In the few pages Ishiguro shows the crumbling of a family. Another story in a similar mode is Graham Greene's 'The Invisble Japanese Gentlemen'. In both cases the commentary on life is left to the reader. In this category one can also include William Golding, V.S. Pritchett, William Trevor, and Ian McEwan. (Here the author simply leaves this thread and jumps to something else).

If you want to know the shape and growth of British Literature, and quickly, or if you want to read something different then this book is a good starting point.

A delight to read / Un placer a leer, 23 Jun 2008
I am so pleased to have found this book again, I used to own it once before and enjoyed its easy style but I gave it away to a South American friend who was learning English (she loves it!).

This book is so expertly executed that even if you have only a modest level of Spanish, it will strengthen what you've already got, provide you with new words and encourage you onto more.

It's set around 18 stories or myths or folklores from Spain's past, starting with the oldest first and working towards the newest last, with the Spanish and English presented on facing pages.

But each story is introduced by a one paragraph abstract which helps sets the scene for the story that follows. And each of the stories in turn are interesting and engaging in their own right.

Such is my confidence in this book, as well as reordering it, I'm also ordering the Latin American and Mexican versions from the same series at the same time.

If only all parallel books were made like this.


A good book for all stages, 24 Jun 2003
This book is not only a real help in coming to grips with a new language but also useful for those wishing to improve accuracy in written Spanish. Having the English translation next to the Spanish text means that your'e not constantly looking up dictionaries, so you can actually enjoy reading the stories. The stories show the rich cultural and historical side of this vast and interesting country, making the learning process a whole lot more practical too.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, 13 Nov 2008
I must say the author has made a good and funny translation of what would have considered harmless children's stories into modern day PC propaganda. What I will say is that it did get a tiny bit repetitive but otherwise it is a good read. Highly recommended for all those who remember the good old days of our children's stories

For everyone not PC repressed, 15 Dec 2007
For any Squaddies or ex-Squaddies who might read this review -

I swamped myself - you have been warned

Funny - or not?, 19 Aug 2007
I found the first two or three amusing - but after that it became just too predictable and, I confess, I never managed to finish it!

Oppression, Alienation, and the Three Little Pigs, 29 Dec 2005
Bedtime stories are probably among the oldest forms of tale-telling there is in human history. Before epic poetry, before political speeches, before religious tales of awe, there were people sitting around campfires and living in caves, caring for their young, speaking soothing sounds to their young.

Bedtime stories were quickly discerned to be an excellent way in which to reinforce not only language skills, but culture and accepted morality, too.

So, why is it that fairy tales, the more-modern equivalent of these stories, became canonised and thus immutable by the likes of the Brothers Grimm, etc.? Just what does Hansel & Gretel or the Little Red Riding Hood mean for us today, beyond being good stories?

And, are they good stories? Should we teach children there are houses made of candy and cookies out in the woods? This is the kind of question addressed in this delightful little collection, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories

Now, before you get your knickers in a twist, realise that this is all in fun, but, as it is fun, highlights certain important points nonetheless. Political correctness can be stretched to the limits of absurdity, like almost anything carried to and beyond its logical limits. That is not to say that political correctness is all bad. But, we do approach a time when nothing can be said for fear of offending someone somewhere at some time.

James Finn Garner highlights this in his introduction, by saying if he has inadvertently displayed any sexist, racist, culturalist, nationalist, regionalist, ageist, lookist, ableist, sizeist, speciesist, intellectualist, socioeconomicist, ethnocentrist, phallocentrist, heteropatriarchalist, or other type of bias as yet unnamed, he apologizes and encourages your suggestions for rectification.

In this volume, we have the following stories, revised and updated for the modern reader:

- Little Red Riding Hood
- The Emperor's New Clothes
- The Three Little Pigs
- Rumpelstiltskin
- The Three Codependent Goats Gruff
- Rapunzel
- Cinderella
- Goldilocks
- Snow White
- Chicken Little
- The Frog Prince
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- The Pied Piper of Hamlin

I shall recount part of the tale of the Frog Prince below, so you can get a sense of the style of the rest of the stories in this book, which present Little Red Riding Hood teaming up with the wolf against the violence of the hunter, the three pigs living in a harmonious collective, and of course, the frog prince: Once, there was a young princess who, when she grew tired of beating her head against the male power structure at her castle, would relax by walking into the woods and sitting beside a small pond. There she would amuse herself by tossing her favourite golden ball up and down and pondering the role of the eco-feminist in her era.

Well, to cut a not-so-long story even shorter (and to avoid infringements by limiting my take to a fair-use length!), the princess and the frog agree to terms, but when the frog approaches for a kiss, the princess feels harassed; however, she relents, and the frog transforms into a businessman who wants to make the pond into a golf course and condo development... The princess eventually decided that she really didn't need a prince after all, particularly one like this, and turns him back into a frog.

'And while someone might have noticed that the frog was gone, no one ever missed the real estate developer.'

Of course, apologies are due to real estate developers, those who wear tacky golf clothing, and those caught in an inter-species spell.

Fun for children of all adult ages.

BRILLIANTLY FUNNY, 06 Jan 2003
This book is for anyone who likes parodys or mocking the political systems. it is a 'value for money' book,as itwill have you laughing all the time (due to its humorous twists and phrases.) The book is composed of several 're-looks' at popular Fairy-Tales and Nursery Stories. I thoroughly recommend this book for everyone, as although it is based on Fairy Tales; its updated twists,endings and political humor makes it more adult- but keeping it light and not boring.

Rubbish, 26 Jun 2007
Don't waste your money, this book is very very poor to say the least.
One star is really one too many!!

Erotic???? No Way, 18 Jun 2007
In a word, this book is dreadful! Sorry for all those who have said they enjoyed it but this book didn't even get me luke warm let alone hot. I kept waiting for each story to start then it ended. Yes, short 5 minute reads but nothing of any substance in them to read. Save your money.

Short and Sweet, 26 Feb 2007
A very enjoyable book with bite size stories that don't waffle about with excess padding. The storyline is established and cuts to the action very quickly. It is a collection of erotic stories by different writers so each has a different style and feel about it. That is not a bad thing and on the whole most of the stories are excellent. The odd one, perhaps leaves you feeling a bit short, you feel they could have taken the bit in their teeth (or something else) and taken the story on a bit further, but on the whole it is very good. I found that it was a good book to open for a few minutes read to perk you up for the day. I particularly liked THE BOUNTY OF SUMMER by Carol Queen, that was very erotic story. I would highly recommend the book. Another book I would recommend that you have a look at, which has perhaps a stronger sexual content, is 100 PERCENT EROTICA by Suzie Van Aartman. This book could well become a classic in my opinion.

The rating says it all!, 01 Feb 2007
After reading the recommendations I ordered this book with high expectations only to be completely underwhelmed! This book wouldn't even shock or arouse my Gran. If you are a fan of Nancy Friday and some Black Lace books this one isn't for you.

Short and Sweet, 28 Nov 2004
I liked these erotic stories very much. There was something for everyone in this book (there are 35 different and unique stories). The stories are very short but they are interesting. I felt that they could have gone a little farther than they went, they were a little tame for my tastes, but they were still a lot of fun to read and I would recommend this as a gift for any woman who enjoys reading erotica or romance. And for an even more erotic read I would recommend Nancy Madore's "Bedtime Stories for Women," which re-tells fairy tales in a very erotic and exciting format.

Sampling of Modernism, 24 Jul 2001
In the introduction, the editor, Malcom Bradbury, sets out his intention in producing this collection: one was to 'display...the achievement of some the best work produced by the strongest of...recent Britsh authors'; and the other, what Bradbury claims to be a more difficult task, to be 'broadly representative, so that the book might give not only a reasonable idea of the variety, but also the general trends and directions that have been taken by British fiction in the years since 1945'.

Bradbury succeeds in both attempts. This is not paritcularly surprising since this is Bradbury's territory. The collection contains works by some of the biggest names in British Literature: William Golding, Samuel Beckett, Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, John Fowles, William Trevor, Ian McEwan, and Kazuo Ishiguro--to name a few. The reason, Bradbury explains, is 'that many of the authors in this collection are our major writers of prose-fiction in general'.

Some of the stories are definitely modern, with self reflexiveness, lots of white spaces, single line paragraphs, whimsical subjects, and inscrutable titles; there are pseudo-stories, stories pretending to be something else when all the while the author is trying to tell a story without letting you know the story is being told since it was the 1960's or thereabouts when the writing a straight forward story was almost a shameful act. But none of this stories are the kind found at the height of modernism, where the reader had no idea what was being said. Each of these authors are aiming at something, something new and different, and not just for the sake of only new or different, (though there are a few that fall into that) but going beyond the traditional story and exploring the truth in new ways. There are also some 'straight' acts. And these are the ones that stay in your mind, unlike the others which are fun to read for the moment but which you then tend to forget. Of the former category is Kazuo Ishiguro's tightly written gem 'A Family Supper'. A simple story about the return of a son to his native Japan after his mother's death. In the few pages Ishiguro shows the crumbling of a family. Another story in a similar mode is Graham Greene's 'The Invisble Japanese Gentlemen'. In both cases the commentary on life is left to the reader. In this category one can also include William Golding, V.S. Pritchett, William Trevor, and Ian McEwan. (Here the author simply leaves this thread and jumps to something else).

If you want to know the shape and growth of British Literature, and quickly, or if you want to read something different then this book is a good starting point.

Wonderful book - gripping to the end., 11 Apr 2006
The stories contained within this book are all excellent. You may well find yourself losing track of time as they draw you in and don't let go.

It's surprising how modern the stories contained within the book (Call of the Wild, White Fang, etc.) feel. If you liked any of the film versions of the stories then read this book: the films can't compete.

Read this book - it's worth every penny and all the stories within are gripping!!!

The Wild is within us, 12 Jan 2004
Beautifully written tale of survival of the fittest in the Wild. London perfectly manages to transpose quite human attributes to both wolf and dog in order for the reader to immerse in the realities of the sublime yet brutal life in the Wild...In doing so, London gives us the chance to communicate with our instincts and react to the events in the book rather than rationalising them.

A delight to read / Un placer a leer, 23 Jun 2008
I am so pleased to have found this book again, I used to own it once before and enjoyed its easy style but I gave it away to a South American friend who was learning English (she loves it!).

This book is so expertly executed that even if you have only a modest level of Spanish, it will strengthen what you've already got, provide you with new words and encourage you onto more.

It's set around 18 stories or myths or folklores from Spain's past, starting with the oldest first and working towards the newest last, with the Spanish and English presented on facing pages.

But each story is introduced by a one paragraph abstract which helps sets the scene for the story that follows. And each of the stories in turn are interesting and engaging in their own right.

Such is my confidence in this book, as well as reordering it, I'm also ordering the Latin American and Mexican versions from the same series at the same time.

If only all parallel books were made like this.


A good book for all stages, 24 Jun 2003
This book is not only a real help in coming to grips with a new language but also useful for those wishing to improve accuracy in written Spanish. Having the English translation next to the Spanish text means that your'e not constantly looking up dictionaries, so you can actually enjoy reading the stories. The stories show the rich cultural and historical side of this vast and interesting country, making the learning process a whole lot more practical too.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, 13 Nov 2008
I must say the author has made a good and funny translation of what would have considered harmless children's stories into modern day PC propaganda. What I will say is that it did get a tiny bit repetitive but otherwise it is a good read. Highly recommended for all those who remember the good old days of our children's stories

For everyone not PC repressed, 15 Dec 2007
For any Squaddies or ex-Squaddies who might read this review -

I swamped myself - you have been warned

Funny - or not?, 19 Aug 2007
I found the first two or three amusing - but after that it became just too predictable and, I confess, I never managed to finish it!

Oppression, Alienation, and the Three Little Pigs, 29 Dec 2005
Bedtime stories are probably among the oldest forms of tale-telling there is in human history. Before epic poetry, before political speeches, before religious tales of awe, there were people sitting around campfires and living in caves, caring for their young, speaking soothing sounds to their young.

Bedtime stories were quickly discerned to be an excellent way in which to reinforce not only language skills, but culture and accepted morality, too.

So, why is it that fairy tales, the more-modern equivalent of these stories, became canonised and thus immutable by the likes of the Brothers Grimm, etc.? Just what does Hansel & Gretel or the Little Red Riding Hood mean for us today, beyond being good stories?

And, are they good stories? Should we teach children there are houses made of candy and cookies out in the woods? This is the kind of question addressed in this delightful little collection, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories

Now, before you get your knickers in a twist, realise that this is all in fun, but, as it is fun, highlights certain important points nonetheless. Political correctness can be stretched to the limits of absurdity, like almost anything carried to and beyond its logical limits. That is not to say that political correctness is all bad. But, we do approach a time when nothing can be said for fear of offending someone somewhere at some time.

James Finn Garner highlights this in his introduction, by saying if he has inadvertently displayed any sexist, racist, culturalist, nationalist, regionalist, ageist, lookist, ableist, sizeist, speciesist, intellectualist, socioeconomicist, ethnocentrist, phallocentrist, heteropatriarchalist, or other type of bias as yet unnamed, he apologizes and encourages your suggestions for rectification.

In this volume, we have the following stories, revised and updated for the modern reader:

- Little Red Riding Hood
- The Emperor's New Clothes
- The Three Little Pigs
- Rumpelstiltskin
- The Three Codependent Goats Gruff
- Rapunzel
- Cinderella
- Goldilocks
- Snow White
- Chicken Little
- The Frog Prince
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- The Pied Piper of Hamlin

I shall recount part of the tale of the Frog Prince below, so you can get a sense of the style of the rest of the stories in this book, which present Little Red Riding Hood teaming up with the wolf against the violence of the hunter, the three pigs living in a harmonious collective, and of course, the frog prince: Once, there was a young princess who, when she grew tired of beating her head against the male power structure at her castle, would relax by walking into the woods and sitting beside a small pond. There she would amuse herself by tossing her favourite golden ball up and down and pondering the role of the eco-feminist in her era.

Well, to cut a not-so-long story even shorter (and to avoid infringements by limiting my take to a fair-use length!), the princess and the frog agree to terms, but when the frog approaches for a kiss, the princess feels harassed; however, she relents, and the frog transforms into a businessman who wants to make the pond into a golf course and condo development... The princess eventually decided that she really didn't need a prince after all, particularly one like this, and turns him back into a frog.

'And while someone might have noticed that the frog was gone, no one ever missed the real estate developer.'

Of course, apologies are due to real estate developers, those who wear tacky golf clothing, and those caught in an inter-species spell.

Fun for children of all adult ages.

BRILLIANTLY FUNNY, 06 Jan 2003
This book is for anyone who likes parodys or mocking the political systems. it is a 'value for money' book,as itwill have you laughing all the time (due to its humorous twists and phrases.) The book is composed of several 're-looks' at popular Fairy-Tales and Nursery Stories. I thoroughly recommend this book for everyone, as although it is based on Fairy Tales; its updated twists,endings and political humor makes it more adult- but keeping it light and not boring.

Rubbish, 26 Jun 2007
Don't waste your money, this book is very very poor to say the least.
One star is really one too many!!

Erotic???? No Way, 18 Jun 2007
In a word, this book is dreadful! Sorry for all those who have said they enjoyed it but this book didn't even get me luke warm let alone hot. I kept waiting for each story to start then it ended. Yes, short 5 minute reads but nothing of any substance in them to read. Save your money.

Short and Sweet, 26 Feb 2007
A very enjoyable book with bite size stories that don't waffle about with excess padding. The storyline is established and cuts to the action very quickly. It is a collection of erotic stories by different writers so each has a different style and feel about it. That is not a bad thing and on the whole most of the stories are excellent. The odd one, perhaps leaves you feeling a bit short, you feel they could have taken the bit in their teeth (or something else) and taken the story on a bit further, but on the whole it is very good. I found that it was a good book to open for a few minutes read to perk you up for the day. I particularly liked THE BOUNTY OF SUMMER by Carol Queen, that was very erotic story. I would highly recommend the book. Another book I would recommend that you have a look at, which has perhaps a stronger sexual content, is 100 PERCENT EROTICA by Suzie Van Aartman. This book could well become a classic in my opinion.

The rating says it all!, 01 Feb 2007
After reading the recommendations I ordered this book with high expectations only to be completely underwhelmed! This book wouldn't even shock or arouse my Gran. If you are a fan of Nancy Friday and some Black Lace books this one isn't for you.

Short and Sweet, 28 Nov 2004
I liked these erotic stories very much. There was something for everyone in this book (there are 35 different and unique stories). The stories are very short but they are interesting. I felt that they could have gone a little farther than they went, they were a little tame for my tastes, but they were still a lot of fun to read and I would recommend this as a gift for any woman who enjoys reading erotica or romance. And for an even more erotic read I would recommend Nancy Madore's "Bedtime Stories for Women," which re-tells fairy tales in a very erotic and exciting format.

Sampling of Modernism, 24 Jul 2001
In the introduction, the editor, Malcom Bradbury, sets out his intention in producing this collection: one was to 'display...the achievement of some the best work produced by the strongest of...recent Britsh authors'; and the other, what Bradbury claims to be a more difficult task, to be 'broadly representative, so that the book might give not only a reasonable idea of the variety, but also the general trends and directions that have been taken by British fiction in the years since 1945'.

Bradbury succeeds in both attempts. This is not paritcularly surprising since this is Bradbury's territory. The collection contains works by some of the biggest names in British Literature: William Golding, Samuel Beckett, Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, John Fowles, William Trevor, Ian McEwan, and Kazuo Ishiguro--to name a few. The reason, Bradbury explains, is 'that many of the authors in this collection are our major writers of prose-fiction in general'.

Some of the stories are definitely modern, with self reflexiveness, lots of white spaces, single line paragraphs, whimsical subjects, and inscrutable titles; there are pseudo-stories, stories pretending to be something else when all the while the author is trying to tell a story without letting you know the story is being told since it was the 1960's or thereabouts when the writing a straight forward story was almost a shameful act. But none of this stories are the kind found at the height of modernism, where the reader had no idea what was being said. Each of these authors are aiming at something, something new and different, and not just for the sake of only new or different, (though there are a few that fall into that) but going beyond the traditional story and exploring the truth in new ways. There are also some 'straight' acts. And these are the ones that stay in your mind, unlike the others which are fun to read for the moment but which you then tend to forget. Of the former category is Kazuo Ishiguro's tightly written gem 'A Family Supper'. A simple story about the return of a son to his native Japan after his mother's death. In the few pages Ishiguro shows the crumbling of a family. Another story in a similar mode is Graham Greene's 'The Invisble Japanese Gentlemen'. In both cases the commentary on life is left to the reader. In this category one can also include William Golding, V.S. Pritchett, William Trevor, and Ian McEwan. (Here the author simply leaves this thread and jumps to something else).

If you want to know the shape and growth of British Literature, and quickly, or if you want to read something different then this book is a good starting point.

Wonderful book - gripping to the end., 11 Apr 2006
The stories contained within this book are all excellent. You may well find yourself losing track of time as they draw you in and don't let go.

It's surprising how modern the stories contained within the book (Call of the Wild, White Fang, etc.) feel. If you liked any of the film versions of the stories then read this book: the films can't compete.

Read this book - it's worth every penny and all the stories within are gripping!!!

The Wild is within us, 12 Jan 2004
Beautifully written tale of survival of the fittest in the Wild. London perfectly manages to transpose quite human attributes to both wolf and dog in order for the reader to immerse in the realities of the sublime yet brutal life in the Wild...In doing so, London gives us the chance to communicate with our instincts and react to the events in the book rather than rationalising them.

Worthwhile, 05 Dec 2008
This book was published in 1981 and contained 41 stories by as many writers: American (17), British (13), Irish (7), and one each from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India.

The compiler, V. S. Pritchett, stated honestly that his selections were based on personal taste, and the contents are more or less what one could expect of someone born in 1900, as he was: one-quarter of the stories were from the 19th century, many others (14) were from the 1920s and 30s, and there were 40 white authors, just seven of whom were women. With the omission of just four or five stories, this book could've been published back in the early 1960s, before the turn toward something a bit more inclusive.

Still, the book covered the outstanding short-story writers in English: Hawthorne, Poe, Joyce, Mansfield, Hemingway, Frank O'Connor, Flannery O'Connor, Trevor. And many others also of great interest: Bierce, Saki, Lawrence, Anderson, Lardner, Maugham, Faulkner, Welty, Narayan, Lavin, O'Flaherty, O'Faolain, Sansom, Cheever, Lessing. Including Pritchett himself, though I wondered why a better story of his wasn't selected.

Some of the writers who were included could perhaps have been omitted (Harte, De La Mare, Coppard, Bates, Callaghan). And others could perhaps have been added, from a list including, among others, Wharton, Cather, William March, Premchand, Mulk Raj Anand, Greene, Beckett, O'Hara, Shaw, Mailer, Gordimer, Sillitoe, Bowles, Moorhouse, Naipaul, Ngugi, Achebe, Barthelme, Baldwin, Ellison, Selby, Yates, Carver, Berriault, Atwood, Angela Carter, Bernard MacLaverty, McEwan and Alice Munro.

On the whole, this anthology isn't a bad place for a reader interested in English-language short stories to begin. Maybe eventually, this book in the Oxford series will be updated by a living author of Pritchett's stature.

To make a short story long..., 05 Aug 2007
Out of the 41 stories collected in this volume almost a half seems delicious to me. For instance:

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark". One is plunged into the cosy and sedate atmophere of 19th century narration with its musing omniscient narrator from the very beginning - "In the latter part of this century there lived a man of science..." - and is bound to enjoy it, no matter what one makes out of the content: a conflict of (masculine) science and (feminine) nature, a meditation on impossibility of perfection in life, or a story of a man who could only love his fantasy... Another classic from the same decade, Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", needs no recommendation. Just one thing for those lovers of Poe's verses who don't read his prose, disliking horror fiction: the story contains one of his most beautiful poems.

Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer", dealing with a solitary captain in his twenties, who is unfamiliar with his ship, and a fugitive very much like himself, will be a pleasure for everybody who likes the doppelgänger motive (as e.g. in the works of another Slavic emigré - Nabokov). Apart from the popular interpretations (a psychologic account of the loneliness at sea as a source for madness; a meditation on the class struggle; an allegory about guilt, redemption and forgiveness; a story of character development) I can offer a love triangle: two men and a ship. The former share a bed, the stranger's nakedness is described as observed by the young captain; the latter cannot help being grammatically feminine in English, but I'm sure that Conrad was conscious of the pronoun's effects in phrases like "I was alone with her", which are often repeated. Trivia: Conrad has actually been a captain; revising the story, he has freed its original title - "The Secret-Sharer" - from the hyphen in order to create ambivalence.

Saki's (H. H. Munro's) "Sredni Vashtar" is a ferret, elevated to divine status by the inventive and secretive ten year old Conradin. The names alone, including the author's ambiguous pseudonym, are reason enough to read Saki... Readers be warned, however, that he has been something of a misogynist - or at least a hater of childless women. The author's growing up in the care of his strict aunts must have played a role in the creation of Conradin's guardian. Another strange and lonesome boy is to be found in D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner". The distribution of deaths, though, is different in these stories. (It wasn't a spoiler yet, was it?)

Apropos death: the "Official Position" held by Sommerset Maugham's protagonist is that of a public executioner; this story of the "honest man and official of the state" is truly kafkaesque. Katherine Mansfield's subtle "The Woman at the Store" with its quietly increasing suspense is as gloomy, and as good. William Sansom's "Various Temptations" deals with a murderer, but is more of a classic horror story which makes the reader happily animated with the question "Will he kill her?" instead of desolate with "Why is life like that?".

Her namesake, Katherine Anne Porter, is represented with her best-known story, "Flowering Judas", highly symbolic and political. Its heroine shares a feature with Miss Fanshawe from William Trevor's "Going Home": both work at schools. Here all similarity ends. Reading these stories in succession is a special treat: the couragious and strong-willed activist is the precise negative of the woman who is so much slave to her unhappy routine that she only dares to say how much she hates it to a boy. The role reversion which takes place in the matron-schoolboy during a train ride is achieved with perfect skill. "Going Home" is essentially a dialogue, the author even converted it into a play later. Another story in the volume, Ring Lardner's "Who Dealt?", is a dramatic monologue. As the speaker's ignorance of what her listeners (and the readers) gather from her words turns from tragic into comic, one realizes why Lardner was the second favourite writer of Holden Caulfield (that's a place in Salinger's own top-ten, I guess).

Doris Lessing's "Mrs Fortescue" is an archetypical coming-of-age story complete with estrangement among siblings, contempt for parents and loss of innocence with an ugly prostitute; it is very skillfully told. Flannery O'Connor also deals with (des)illusions in "Parker's Back". His protagonist is not a teenager anymore, but he seems as strange and new to himself as an adolescent since having, to his own surprise, married that religious girl...

The volume's collector, Pritchett, regularly wrote for "The Christian Science Monitor", and his preoccupation with religion is obvious. Apart from the Sredny-Vashtar-faith only one religion is represented in the book, and it is represented abundantly: Christian nuns, monks and students of theology are among the protagonists. However, there is a good excuse for the disproportion: the many gems among these stories - Joyce's "Grace", Sean O'Faolain's "Sinners", Mary Lavin's "My Vocation"... A list of the titles alone is suggestive; Updike's "Lifeguard", the last story in the volume, also deals with the saving of souls as well as of bodies.

Pritchett's own contribution, "Many are Disappointed" seems to me to be the weakest in the collection, and its plot is conspiciously similar to "The Woman at the Store" (another plain, lonely and very nervous mother of a little girl meeting three travellers at what they expected to be an inn in the middle of nowhere...). Not that the bare "fictional facts" matter much, but as I couldn't find much style or wit or depth in it, either, I'm inclined to see it as what Harold Bloom would have called a weak misreading. But placing it in one volume with Mansfield's story was brave on the part of Pritchett; and being grateful to him for the collection, I'll not attempt any witticism involving his story's title.

A delight to read / Un placer a leer, 23 Jun 2008
I am so pleased to have found this book again, I used to own it once before and enjoyed its easy style but I gave it away to a South American friend who was learning English (she loves it!).

This book is so expertly executed that even if you have only a modest level of Spanish, it will strengthen what you've already got, provide you with new words and encourage you onto more.

It's set around 18 stories or myths or folklores from Spain's past, starting with the oldest first and working towards the newest last, with the Spanish and English presented on facing pages.

But each story is introduced by a one paragraph abstract which helps sets the scene for the story that follows. And each of the stories in turn are interesting and engaging in their own right.

Such is my confidence in this book, as well as reordering it, I'm also ordering the Latin American and Mexican versions from the same series at the same time.

If only all parallel books were made like this.


A good book for all stages, 24 Jun 2003
This book is not only a real help in coming to grips with a new language but also useful for those wishing to improve accuracy in written Spanish. Having the English translation next to the Spanish text means that your'e not constantly looking up dictionaries, so you can actually enjoy reading the stories. The stories show the rich cultural and historical side of this vast and interesting country, making the learning process a whole lot more practical too.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, 13 Nov 2008
I must say the author has made a good and funny translation of what would have considered harmless children's stories into modern day PC propaganda. What I will say is that it did get a tiny bit repetitive but otherwise it is a good read. Highly recommended for all those who remember the good old days of our children's stories

For everyone not PC repressed, 15 Dec 2007
For any Squaddies or ex-Squaddies who might read this review -

I swamped myself - you have been warned

Funny - or not?, 19 Aug 2007
I found the first two or three amusing - but after that it became just too predictable and, I confess, I never managed to finish it!

Oppression, Alienation, and the Three Little Pigs, 29 Dec 2005
Bedtime stories are probably among the oldest forms of tale-telling there is in human history. Before epic poetry, before political speeches, before religious tales of awe, there were people sitting around campfires and living in caves, caring for their young, speaking soothing sounds to their young.

Bedtime stories were quickly discerned to be an excellent way in which to reinforce not only language skills, but culture and accepted morality, too.

So, why is it that fairy tales, the more-modern equivalent of these stories, became canonised and thus immutable by the likes of the Brothers Grimm, etc.? Just what does Hansel & Gretel or the Little Red Riding Hood mean for us today, beyond being good stories?

And, are they good stories? Should we teach children there are houses made of candy and cookies out in the woods? This is the kind of question addressed in this delightful little collection, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories

Now, before you get your knickers in a twist, realise that this is all in fun, but, as it is fun, highlights certain important points nonetheless. Political correctness can be stretched to the limits of absurdity, like almost anything carried to and beyond its logical limits. That is not to say that political correctness is all bad. But, we do approach a time when nothing can be said for fear of offending someone somewhere at some time.

James Finn Garner highlights this in his introduction, by saying if he has inadvertently displayed any sexist, racist, culturalist, nationalist, regionalist, ageist, lookist, ableist, sizeist, speciesist, intellectualist, socioeconomicist, ethnocentrist, phallocentrist, heteropatriarchalist, or other type of bias as yet unnamed, he apologizes and encourages your suggestions for rectification.

In this volume, we have the following stories, revised and updated for the modern reader:

- Little Red Riding Hood
- The Emperor's New Clothes
- The Three Little Pigs
- Rumpelstiltskin
- The Three Codependent Goats Gruff
- Rapunzel
- Cinderella
- Goldilocks
- Snow White
- Chicken Little
- The Frog Prince
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- The Pied Piper of Hamlin

I shall recount part of the tale of the Frog Prince below, so you can get a sense of the style of the rest of the stories in this book, which present Little Red Riding Hood teaming up with the wolf against the violence of the hunter, the three pigs living in a harmonious collective, and of course, the frog prince: Once, there was a young princess who, when she grew tired of beating her head against the male power structure at her castle, would relax by walking into the woods and sitting beside a small pond. There she would amuse herself by tossing her favourite golden ball up and down and pondering the role of the eco-feminist in her era.

Well, to cut a not-so-long story even shorter (and to avoid infringements by limiting my take to a fair-use length!), the princess and the frog agree to terms, but when the frog approaches for a kiss, the princess feels harassed; however, she relents, and the frog transforms into a businessman who wants to make the pond into a golf course and condo development... The princess eventually decided that she really didn't need a prince after all, particularly one like this, and turns him back into a frog.

'And while someone might have noticed that the frog was gone, no one ever missed the real estate developer.'

Of course, apologies are due to real estate developers, those who wear tacky golf clothing, and those caught in an inter-species spell.

Fun for children of all adult ages.

BRILLIANTLY FUNNY, 06 Jan 2003
This book is for anyone who likes parodys or mocking the political systems. it is a 'value for money' book,as itwill have you laughing all the time (due to its humorous twists and phrases.) The book is composed of several 're-looks' at popular Fairy-Tales and Nursery Stories. I thoroughly recommend this book for everyone, as although it is based on Fairy Tales; its updated twists,endings and political humor makes it more adult- but keeping it light and not boring.

Rubbish, 26 Jun 2007
Don't waste your money, this book is very very poor to say the least.
One star is really one too many!!

Erotic???? No Way, 18 Jun 2007
In a word, this book is dreadful! Sorry for all those who have said they enjoyed it but this book didn't even get me luke warm let alone hot. I kept waiting for each story to start then it ended. Yes, short 5 minute reads but nothing of any substance in them to read. Save your money.

Short and Sweet, 26 Feb 2007
A very enjoyable book with bite size stories that don't waffle about with excess padding. The storyline is established and cuts to the action very quickly. It is a collection of erotic stories by different writers so each has a different style and feel about it. That is not a bad thing and on the whole most of the stories are excellent. The odd one, perhaps leaves you feeling a bit short, you feel they could have taken the bit in their teeth (or something else) and taken the story on a bit further, but on the whole it is very good. I found that it was a good book to open for a few minutes read to perk you up for the day. I particularly liked THE BOUNTY OF SUMMER by Carol Queen, that was very erotic story. I would highly recommend the book. Another book I would recommend that you have a look at, which has perhaps a stronger sexual content, is 100 PERCENT EROTICA by Suzie Van Aartman. This book could well become a classic in my opinion.

The rating says it all!, 01 Feb 2007
After reading the recommendations I ordered this book with high expectations only to be completely underwhelmed! This book wouldn't even shock or arouse my Gran. If you are a fan of Nancy Friday and some Black Lace books this one isn't for you.

Short and Sweet, 28 Nov 2004
I liked these erotic stories very much. There was something for everyone in this book (there are 35 different and unique stories). The stories are very short but they are interesting. I felt that they could have gone a little farther than they went, they were a little tame for my tastes, but they were still a lot of fun to read and I would recommend this as a gift for any woman who enjoys reading erotica or romance. And for an even more erotic read I would recommend Nancy Madore's "Bedtime Stories for Women," which re-tells fairy tales in a very erotic and exciting format.

Sampling of Modernism, 24 Jul 2001
In the introduction, the editor, Malcom Bradbury, sets out his intention in producing this collection: one was to 'display...the achievement of some the best work produced by the strongest of...recent Britsh authors'; and the other, what Bradbury claims to be a more difficult task, to be 'broadly representative, so that the book might give not only a reasonable idea of the variety, but also the general trends and directions that have been taken by British fiction in the years since 1945'.

Bradbury succeeds in both attempts. This is not paritcularly surprising since this is Bradbury's territory. The collection contains works by some of the biggest names in British Literature: William Golding, Samuel Beckett, Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, John Fowles, William Trevor, Ian McEwan, and Kazuo Ishiguro--to name a few. The reason, Bradbury explains, is 'that many of the authors in this collection are our major writers of prose-fiction in general'.

Some of the stories are definitely modern, with self reflexiveness, lots of white spaces, single line paragraphs, whimsical subjects, and inscrutable titles; there are pseudo-stories, stories pretending to be something else when all the while the author is trying to tell a story without letting you know the story is being told since it was the 1960's or thereabouts when the writing a straight forward story was almost a shameful act. But none of this stories are the kind found at the height of modernism, where the reader had no idea what was being said. Each of these authors are aiming at something, something new and different, and not just for the sake of only new or different, (though there are a few that fall into that) but going beyond the traditional story and exploring the truth in new ways. There are also some 'straight' acts. And these are the ones that stay in your mind, unlike the others which are fun to read for the moment but which you then tend to forget. Of the former category is Kazuo Ishiguro's tightly written gem 'A Family Supper'. A simple story about the return of a son to his native Japan after his mother's death. In the few pages Ishiguro shows the crumbling of a family. Another story in a similar mode is Graham Greene's 'The Invisble Japanese Gentlemen'. In both cases the commentary on life is left to the reader. In this category one can also include William Golding, V.S. Pritchett, William Trevor, and Ian McEwan. (Here the author simply leaves this thread and jumps to something else).

If you want to know the shape and growth of British Literature, and quickly, or if you want to read something different then this book is a good starting point.

Wonderful book - gripping to the end., 11 Apr 2006
The stories contained within this book are all excellent. You may well find yourself losing track of time as they draw you in and don't let go.

It's surprising how modern the stories contained within the book (Call of the Wild, White Fang, etc.) feel. If you liked any of the film versions of the stories then read this book: the films can't compete.

Read this book - it's worth every penny and all the stories within are gripping!!!

The Wild is within us, 12 Jan 2004
Beautifully written tale of survival of the fittest in the Wild. London perfectly manages to transpose quite human attributes to both wolf and dog in order for the reader to immerse in the realities of the sublime yet brutal life in the Wild...In doing so, London gives us the chance to communicate with our instincts and react to the events in the book rather than rationalising them.

Worthwhile, 05 Dec 2008
This book was published in 1981 and contained 41 stories by as many writers: American (17), British (13), Irish (7), and one each from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India.

The compiler, V. S. Pritchett, stated honestly that his selections were based on personal taste, and the contents are more or less what one could expect of someone born in 1900, as he was: one-quarter of the stories were from the 19th century, many others (14) were from the 1920s and 30s, and there were 40 white authors, just seven of whom were women. With the omission of just four or five stories, this book could've been published back in the early 1960s, before the turn toward something a bit more inclusive.

Still, the book covered the outstanding short-story writers in English: Hawthorne, Poe, Joyce, Mansfield, Hemingway, Frank O'Connor, Flannery O'Connor, Trevor. And many others also of great interest: Bierce, Saki, Lawrence, Anderson, Lardner, Maugham, Faulkner, Welty, Narayan, Lavin, O'Flaherty, O'Faolain, Sansom, Cheever, Lessing. Including Pritchett himself, though I wondered why a better story of his wasn't selected.

Some of the writers who were included could perhaps have been omitted (Harte, De La Mare, Coppard, Bates, Callaghan). And others could perhaps have been added, from a list including, among others, Wharton, Cather, William March, Premchand, Mulk Raj Anand, Greene, Beckett, O'Hara, Shaw, Mailer, Gordimer, Sillitoe, Bowles, Moorhouse, Naipaul, Ngugi, Achebe, Barthelme, Baldwin, Ellison, Selby, Yates, Carver, Berriault, Atwood, Angela Carter, Bernard MacLaverty, McEwan and Alice Munro.

On the whole, this anthology isn't a bad place for a reader interested in English-language short stories to begin. Maybe eventually, this book in the Oxford series will be updated by a living author of Pritchett's stature.

To make a short story long..., 05 Aug 2007
Out of the 41 stories collected in this volume almost a half seems delicious to me. For instance:

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark". One is plunged into the cosy and sedate atmophere of 19th century narration with its musing omniscient narrator from the very beginning - "In the latter part of this century there lived a man of science..." - and is bound to enjoy it, no matter what one makes out of the content: a conflict of (masculine) science and (feminine) nature, a meditation on impossibility of perfection in life, or a story of a man who could only love his fantasy... Another classic from the same decade, Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", needs no recommendation. Just one thing for those lovers of Poe's verses who don't read his prose, disliking horror fiction: the story contains one of his most beautiful poems.

Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer", dealing with a solitary captain in his twenties, who is unfamiliar with his ship, and a fugitive very much like himself, will be a pleasure for everybody who likes the doppelgänger motive (as e.g. in the works of another Slavic emigré - Nabokov). Apart from the popular interpretations (a psychologic account of the loneliness at sea as a source for madness; a meditation on the class struggle; an allegory about guilt, redemption and forgiveness; a story of character development) I can offer a love triangle: two men and a ship. The former share a bed, the stranger's nakedness is described as observed by the young captain; the latter cannot help being grammatically feminine in English, but I'm sure that Conrad was conscious of the pronoun's effects in phrases like "I was alone with her", which are often repeated. Trivia: Conrad has actually been a captain; revising the story, he has freed its original title - "The Secret-Sharer" - from the hyphen in order to create ambivalence.

Saki's (H. H. Munro's) "Sredni Vashtar" is a ferret, elevated to divine status by the inventive and secretive ten year old Conradin. The names alone, including the author's ambiguous pseudonym, are reason enough to read Saki... Readers be warned, however, that he has been something of a misogynist - or at least a hater of childless women. The author's growing up in the care of his strict aunts must have played a role in the creation of Conradin's guardian. Another strange and lonesome boy is to be found in D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner". The distribution of deaths, though, is different in these stories. (It wasn't a spoiler yet, was it?)

Apropos death: the "Official Position" held by Sommerset Maugham's protagonist is that of a public executioner; this story of the "honest man and official of the state" is truly kafkaesque. Katherine Mansfield's subtle "The Woman at the Store" with its quietly increasing suspense is as gloomy, and as good. William Sansom's "Various Temptations" deals with a murderer, but is more of a classic horror story which makes the reader happily animated with the question "Will he kill her?" instead of desolate with "Why is life like that?".

Her namesake, Katherine Anne Porter, is represented with her best-known story, "Flowering Judas", highly symbolic and political. Its heroine shares a feature with Miss Fanshawe from William Trevor's "Going Home": both work at schools. Here all similarity ends. Reading these stories in succession is a special treat: the couragious and strong-willed activist is the precise negative of the woman who is so much slave to her unhappy routine that she only dares to say how much she hates it to a boy. The role reversion which takes place in the matron-schoolboy during a train ride is achieved with perfect skill. "Going Home" is essentially a dialogue, the author even converted it into a play later. Another story in the volume, Ring Lardner's "Who Dealt?", is a dramatic monologue. As the speaker's ignorance of what her listeners (and the readers) gather from her words turns from tragic into comic, one realizes why Lardner was the second favourite writer of Holden Caulfield (that's a place in Salinger's own top-ten, I guess).

Doris Lessing's "Mrs Fortescue" is an archetypical coming-of-age story complete with estrangement among siblings, contempt for parents and loss of innocence with an ugly prostitute; it is very skillfully told. Flannery O'Connor also deals with (des)illusions in "Parker's Back". His protagonist is not a teenager anymore, but he seems as strange and new to himself as an adolescent since having, to his own surprise, married that religious girl...

The volume's collector, Pritchett, regularly wrote for "The Christian Science Monitor", and his preoccupation with religion is obvious. Apart from the Sredny-Vashtar-faith only one religion is represented in the book, and it is represented abundantly: Christian nuns, monks and students of theology are among the protagonists. However, there is a good excuse for the disproportion: the many gems among these stories - Joyce's "Grace", Sean O'Faolain's "Sinners", Mary Lavin's "My Vocation"... A list of the titles alone is suggestive; Updike's "Lifeguard", the last story in the volume, also deals with the saving of souls as well as of bodies.

Pritchett's own contribution, "Many are Disappointed" seems to me to be the weakest in the collection, and its plot is conspiciously similar to "The Woman at the Store" (another plain, lonely and very nervous mother of a little girl meeting three travellers at what they expected to be an inn in the middle of nowhere...). Not that the bare "fictional facts" matter much, but as I couldn't find much style or wit or depth in it, either, I'm inclined to see it as what Harold Bloom would have called a weak misreading. But placing it in one volume with Mansfield's story was brave on the part of Pritchett; and being grateful to him for the collection, I'll not attempt any witticism involving his story's title.


A mix of emotions, chocolate and short stories., 15 Apr 2001
This book brought out strong emotions which are always best accompanied with chocolate. I thoughally enjoyed this strange book.

A delight to read / Un placer a leer, 23 Jun 2008
I am so pleased to have found this book again, I used to own it once before and enjoyed its easy style but I gave it away to a South American friend who was learning English (she loves it!).

This book is so expertly executed that even if you have only a modest level of Spanish, it will strengthen what you've already got, provide you with new words and encourage you onto more.

It's set around 18 stories or myths or folklores from Spain's past, starting with the oldest first and working towards the newest last, with the Spanish and English presented on facing pages.

But each story is introduced by a one paragraph abstract which helps sets the scene for the story that follows. And each of the stories in turn are interesting and engaging in their own right.

Such is my confidence in this book, as well as reordering it, I'm also ordering the Latin American and Mexican versions from the same series at the same time.

If only all parallel books were made like this.


A good book for all stages, 24 Jun 2003
This book is not only a real help in coming to grips with a new language but also useful for those wishing to improve accuracy in written Spanish. Having the English translation next to the Spanish text means that your'e not constantly looking up dictionaries, so