Knights, shape-shifters, whites, picachus, little brown skinned ones, and ghosts: Queen Mab of England, Melusine of France, the Scandinavian nixies, and the Scottish selkies: these magical creatures are sometimes mischievous, sometimes dangerous, always enchanting. This collection brings together a variety of literary fairies: here is Spenser's Faerie Queene, Shakespeare's Titania, Keats' Belle Dame Sans Merci, of course, but also Rimbaud's "Fairy," Goethe's "Erl-King," Denise Levertov's "Elves," Sylvia Plath's "Lorelei," Christopher Okigbo's "Watermaid," Neil Gaiman's "The Fairy Reel," and the changeling boy of Patience Agbabi ("The Double").
