The Mermaid and the Simpleton

These fifteen original stories are cast in the enchanted mode of fairy tales but not necessarily in their redemptive mood. Several end sadly ever after, others rather wistfully, and still others unresolvedly; and one in particular, “Little Lady Margaret,” bears a strangely gothic touch—she weaves her image into a tapestry and when in trouble takes permanent refuge there. That wise horse named “Heart of the Wind” guides a pair of forbidden lovers to safety in a land of peace and equality. . . death; and “The Ivory Box” offers similar solace to an errant young merchant of means. Goodness is more conventionally rewarded for this genre in the title story where a simpleton rescues an exhibited mermaid and she, in turn, rescues him from imprisonment, as well as in the pleasingly modest case of a village man who uses his well-earned “Three Wishes” to help three unfortunates and is granted fulfillment of his dreams besides. Humor graces the group only sparingly, the prose is undecorated, the morals implicit; the conceptions are imaginative, if evaporative, and for all their gossamer femininity not glib or tame. KIRKUS REVIEW