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Book cover

Frontispiece of the book

Title page

Page from the book

My days with the fairies is a book published in 1913 written by Mrs. Rodolph Stawell. The book was published in London by Hodder and Stoughton and contains illustrations by Edmund Dulac. It encompasses 17 tales with different main characters and story arches. The stories incorporate elements of fairytales such as happy endings and typical figures like fairies and gnomes.

Context

In the second half of the 19th century, British folklore was influenced by French and German authors. Edgar Taylor translated the German fairytales written by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm into English in 1823, publishing 'German Popular Stories, translated from the Kinder und Haus Märchen, collected by M.M. Grimm, from oral tradition'. British authors that influenced fairytale writing are Andrew Lang and Christina Rossetti. In the late 1900s the genre had an increase in publications and was more designed to appeal to children. In the 19th century, illustrations became cheaper and of higher quality and were important for the commercial success of a book. Due to the high quality and the development of illustrations during that period, the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century are also known as the golden age of illustration. The book's illustrator, Edmund Dulac, starts working with Hodder and Stoughton in 1907. He creates illustrations for fairies I have met which are all preserved in the enlarged version. His style is influenced by Orientalism, especially Japonism can be seen in his illustrations.

The author of the book, Mrs. Rodolph Stawell, born Maud Margaret Key Stawell, is a British author and translator. She published an earlier version of the book called Fairies I have met, which only had 12 stories. In 1909 she published Motor tours in Wales & the border counties, which revolves not about fairytales, but her own traveling experience and appreciation of the English nature, which can be observed in the fairytale.

Contents

The bird of shadows and the sun-bird

The story follows a young girl called Agatha, who dreams about singing and flying like a nightingale, despite others describing the sound of the bird as sad, also calling it the bird of shadows. To fulfill her dreams, she visits an old magician, hoping he could help her. The magician tells her that he will give her one feather every day if, in exchange, she will leave one pearl of her necklace in his cave. The necklace is very precious to Agatha, but after considering it, she agrees and visits the magician every day until no pearl is left on her necklace and she collects the last feather. Then she transforms into a nightingale singing with a happy voice, and ever since then she was known as the Sun-Bird.

The sea fairy and the land fairy and how they quarelled

The story describes the fight of a sea fairy named Laughing Saphire and a land fairy called Sweet-of-the-mountain about whether the sea or the land, is the better place to live. They decide to end this discussion once and for all by bringing the most beautiful things their respective landscape has to offer to the sea-anemone, who should then settle the debate. Both fairies go on a quest and present the sea-anemone with three things from their home. Both fairies are convinced that they live in the superior landscape and are shocked when sea-anemone tells them that for sea fairies the sea is the better place and for land fairies the land is preferable.

The adventurous life of an acorn fairy

The main protagonist of the story is a fairy called Storm wing who throughout the story, tries to find its true purpose. In the beginning of the story Storm wing wonders why his name is exciting and turbulent and contradicting compared to his repetitive job as an acorn fairy. When talking to other fairies who tell him about the sea and how exciting it is, it never leaves his mind. Despite thinking that there must be more in life for him than taking care of his acorn, he sticks to his job with discipline. One day his acorn develops a crack and falls to the ground. This makes Storm wing sad, but soon after, a tree begins to grow out of his acorn. Many fairies come to live in his tree, and Storm Wing is very content with this development. But then a woodman comes and cuts his tree. Still, Storm wing stays loyal and hangs on to the wood the man cut and follows it. The wood was turned into a boat, and Storm wing is finally able to have an exciting life on the sea.

Princess Orchid's party

Hedgeflower, a small wild rose fairy visits a party of princess Orchid. The party was full of fairies as a spider fell on the princess glass house, leaving only shattered glass. Hedgeflower saves the princess's life by shouting her name, enabling her to move in the last second. Knowing that the princess has no place to live anymore, everyone offers her a place to live. But from all the luxurious places the princess could choose, she decides to ask Hedgeflower to live with him in a small hedge with thorns. She then lets him know she would prefer to live directly under the sun instead of being hidden behind glass.

Why the wind changed

The story follows the puff of wind who has fun annoying people. He thinks that he is the strongest and fastest creature, but these beliefs are challenged when he meets the Sunbeam. The Sunbeam's kind and warming nature is able to draw a smile on children's faces and enlighten people's days. The sunbeam challenges the Puff of wind, and after spending a day with the sunbeam, he accepts that he is neither the strongest nor the fastest, and he turns into a kind evening breeze.

The cloud that had no lining

The story revolves around fairies that live in a cloud that is not lined with silver, which is said to be a rare occurrence. The fairies are not content with their cloud being unusual and submitting rain and think about the best ways to get their cloud lined. Three of the fairies that live in the cloud plan to find silver they could use for lining. But after trying the silver of a stream and the silver from the moonshine fairies, they were disappointed. The silver of a stream turns out to be water, and the moonshine fairies silver is too light to carry the cloud. Mist-of-the-Mountain, the last fairy to search for the correct silver, decides to take a different approach. Asking the other fairies, living in lined clouds, he is sent to the sunbeam fairies, who then hand him sunbeam silver. Lining the cloud with sunbeam silver turns out to be a long-lasting solution, and then it never rained again.

How Tony and Teddy looked for fairies

Tony and Teddy are twins who discover their grandfather's old library. As they read one of the books, a fairy flies out of it and starts to talk with them. The fairy tells them that fairies live in almost every book they ever touched. The boys get lost in reading books and see more and more fairies. Teddy then wants to write a book himself, and before beginning to write it he starts asking all fairies if they want to live in his book, but they deny or seem to hide from him. In the meantime, his brother writes a book, in which he gets so absorbed by it that he does not realise the many fairies that fly around him, eager to call his book their home. As Tony finishes his book, he realises a small blue fairy lives in it.

The fairies who changed places

Drop-of-Crystal, a snow fairy whose job it is to make snowflakes and Starblossom who takes care of flowers are fighting over whose job is harder to do. Both of them are convinced that their occupation is more demanding. To get an insight into the other job, they decide to switch places. But although Drop-of-Crystal tries very hard to shape the flower-bud the way Starblossom does, every time it turns out to have the shape of a drop of snow. Starblossom faced a similar challenge, as hard as the fairy tried to give the drop of snow its shape, it ends up looking like a snowflower.

The hour that Maisie lost

Maisie is given an hour as a gift from her fairy godmother. She thinks carefully about what to do with the hour, as she does not want to waste it. But in the time she spends thinking about what to do the hour is already gone. She tries to find it looking everywhere, but it is a hopeless search. The hour is already on an old gentleman's watch who decides to use it another time as he is already early. But as he reads his book, he forgets that he had been gifted an extra hour, running to the station scared to miss his train. But as he arrives, he realises he is one hour early. Looking at his watch, he sees the extra hour is already gone. Next, Billy and Bobby find the hour and fight, about who it should belong to. As they settled their fight the hour was already gone. The hour makes many more encounters with people that are not pleased with its company, only as it comes back to Maisie, who uses it meaningfully, does the hour become happy again.

The making of the opal

The story follows a princess who was beloved by all fairies. She wants to get married, and the fairies are eager to equip her with the most beautiful decoration for her dark hair. They are looking for something that is long-lasting, as the flowers they brought her died too soon. Three fairies fly out to the Crystal Mountain, each taking one stone , then they part their ways. One fairy flies to the sea to visit a mermaid, who dips it into the darkest spot in the blue sea, creating the first sapphire. The second fairy takes his stone to the wood-pixies, who transform the stone into a stone of thedarkest green, creating the first emerald. The last fairy flies to the fire-gnomes and asks them to take the stone to the fire until it is glowing red, creating the first ruby. They then fly to the princess to gift their presents. As the princess wants to wear every gemstone, a small fairy combines the stones, creating the first opal.

The big spider's diamonds

A big spider is watched by sun-fairies who look down on him through the hole of a black cloud. The spider admires the diamonds hanging in his web, and the sun-fairies make fun of him. One of them suggests to steal the spiders diamonds at dawn before it wakes up. The others agree, and the spider was in rage as he realised that his diamonds were stolen. The rain-fairies decide to give the diamonds back to the spider. But by doing so, they accidentally destroy his web, causing the spider to fall down.

The sea fairy's warning

A young girl named Kitty is friends with many sea-fairies, but she has never been to the sea herself. One day her dad tells her that she will come on a boat-trip with him, and Kitty runs to the shore to the sea-fairies, who share her excitement. When Kitty goes home, the sea-fairies talk to the wind fairies, who are looking forward to a storm they have planned the next day. The sea-fairies get scared that something could happen to Kitty, but as they do not have wings, they have to ask the seagulls to take them to Kitty's place. When they arrive, Kitty's dad, although he cannot see or hear the fairies, decides to wait two more days before going on the trip. The fairies then decide that the windfairies will always warn the sea-fairies when there is an upcoming storm so the people on land will be warned.

A little girl in a book

Christabel is a young girl who wonders why little girls in books are more clever and adventurous than the ones she knows in real life. She dreams about becoming a girl in a book, and expresses this wish to her older sister, who is a writer. After a few days, she experiences some changes, she feels stiffer and says sentences she does not mean to say. She realises what happens, her sister writes a book about her. She faces many adventures, such as being held captive by pirates. But every time she lives through the book, she is forced to go to the beginning again. Christabel finds this tiresome and breaks out of being a girl in a book and turns into a normal girl again. She tells her sister that in real life she is more free to say what she thinks, but her sister responds with doubt.

The fairy who was looking for a home

Flitterwing is a fairy without a home who is tired of changing homes, because people pick rosebuds or mown the lawn he lives in. So he wanders to places where fairies can not often be found: A backyard filled with stones, not flowers. He takes care of the little grass that he finds there. But even from this place he needs to flee as a gardener comes to cut the grass. He flees into a room, where businessmen come together to discuss numbers that he cannot comprehend. He wonders why they meet, as none of them seem happy to talk about graphs and figures. Flitterwing notices that one of the men has a love for poetry, and so he slips into his ink pot, causing the man to write poetry instead of figures. He reads the poem to the other men. At this moment the fairy leaves the room and dances with the sunbeam, who shows him a scarlet geranium that was growing near, which became the fairy's new home. The businessmen are starting to work on their figures again, but never forget the beautiful poem.

The box of dreams

A little girl named Gretel loses her sick mother, who, as a last gift, gives her a box of dreams and tells her not to open it until her hair turns grey. Gretel works many jobs and travels many places. One day she plays with Eitel, a boy who convinces her to open the box. As she opens it many dreams fly away as puffs coloured in rose. She cries and promises herself to never open the box again until she is old. She sticks to this promise over the years and opens the box when she is old enough. The box contains jewelry of all kinds.

The fairy who had only one wing

A fairy lives in a rosebud when a man comes and snippes the rosebud of the tree and sends it to London. As fairies take great care of their homes, he follows his flower all the way and meets many fairies with the same fate. In the flower shop, one of his wings gets torn apart as a wire cuts through the rose. The fairy is very sad about losing its wing but still looks after the rosebud, which is now tied to the window. One day a little girl comes to buy the fairy's rosebud for her grandmother's birthday. She tells the fairy that her grandmother is very lonely and has not seen fairies for a long time. But to the fairy's surprise, the old woman can see him. They talk and settle that the fairy will live with her now even after the rosebud dies.

The little boy from town

Michael, an eight-year-old boy living in a big city, is seeing the sea for the first time during the holidays. It is the first time he sees sea-faries and mermaids, and he is so fond of the sea he wants to take something home to the big city he lives in. So he asks the mermaid to bring him a white-horse, but as hard as the mermaid tried, she was not able to bring it to the shore. And as she tries to bring him jewels, they melt before the boy can even touch him. So she decides to teach him a song about the sea. And the boy remembers the song, and the dreams about the sea never leave him. Michael grows up to become a sailor.

Illustrations

• 
  Image from The sea fairy and the land fairy and how they quarelled
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  Image from Princess Orchid's party
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  Image from The cloud that had no lining
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  Image from The fairies who changed places
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  Image from The making of the opal
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  Image from The big spider's diamonds
• 
  Image from A little girl in a book

Reception

This book was the last fairytale the author wrote, but together with others she published Fabre's book of insects, retold from Alexander Teixeira de Mattos' translation of Fabre's "Souvenirs entomologiques," in 1921, marking her interest in nature that is highlighted in this fairytale. This interest, as well as a certain environmental awareness that can be seen in the stories of the book, for example by making the fairy flee from their home due to deforestation, is in line with the first impulses of environmental awareness in the 20th century. Therefore, it represents a piece of history from an era when children were becoming more disconnected from nature due to industrialization, working to preserve their sense of magic and connection to the nature around them.

In the 20th century, fairytales remain to be a popular genre. Many classic tales are retold, keeping the magical elements but adapting the context and roles to be time-appropriate. In the beginning of the 21st century, My day with the fairies can be purchased as new reprints and online versions in shops like Barnes and Noble. Although the book itself did not reach the popularity of other fairytales, such as Cinderella, which has been reinvented and produced in many movies over the years, that it can still be purchased means that the stories can still find their way to children even 100 years after being published. The persistence of the fairytale genre in the 21st century is also explained by their cultural relevance in films, series and video games.

Regarding the book's illustrator it can be said that besides other works, which do not concern fairytales, he published Edmund Dulac's Fairy Book in 1916. He established himself as an influential illustrator in this golden period of illustrations. His work meaningfully impacted the work of other illustrators during his lifetime still, soon after, this golden age of illustration came to an end, partially due to the growing advancements in photography.