In one of the most stratling literary discoveries of recent years, Jack Zipes has uncovered this neglected treasuretrove of Sicilian folk and fairy tales. Like the Grimm brothers before her, Laura Gonzenbach, a talented Swiss-German born in Sicily, set out to gether up the tales told and retold among the peasants. Gonzenbach collected wonderful stories, some on subjects that readers will know from the Grimms or Perrault, some entirely new, and published them in German. her early death and the destruction of her papers in the Messina earthquake of 1908 only add to the mystery behind her achievement. The Robber with the Witch's Head is an instant classic: a ninteenth century collection of stories in the great tradition of fairy and folk tales now translated into English for the first time. Gonzenbach delights us woth heroines and princes, socery and surprise, the deeds of the brave and the treacherous, and the magic of the true storyteller. Yet while the stories enchant us, the wry taglines with which they often end ('And so they remainedrich and consoled, while we keep sitting here and are getting old') gently bring us back to earth. The Robber with the Witch's Head M is the rcihest of gifts, a genuine literary surprise.
