Stray leaves from strange literature; and, Fantastics and other fancies — Reading Companion can be approached with a clearer sense of reading commitment from its source measurements: 88,111 words, 6 hr 24 min estimated reading time, and 9 detected text sections.
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This volume pairs two distinct bodies of Lafcadio Hearn's work: Stray Leaves from Strange Literature, a set of retold legends from Egyptian, Buddhist, Finnish, Moslem, and Talmudic traditions, and Fantastics and Other Fancies, a collection of his early newspaper sketches written for the New Orleans Item and Times-Democrat. The introduction by Charles Woodward Hutson notes that many of the 'Fantastics' were nearly lost, surviving only in the brittle files of the Item. Hearn's prose here is already marked by what Hutson calls a 'passion for exquisite words' and a 'weird melody of word-music.'
The first half of the book draws on a wide geographic and cultural range. 'The Book of Thoth' is taken from an Egyptian papyrus; 'The Fountain Maiden' retells a South Pacific legend; 'The Bird Wife' is an Esquimau tradition. The section 'Tales from Indian and Buddhist Literature' includes stories such as 'The Making of Tilottama' and 'The Corpse-Demon,' while 'Runes from the Kalewala' adapts Finnish epic material. 'Stories of Moslem Lands' and 'Traditions Retold from the Talmud' round out the collection. Hearn does not simply translate; he reshapes these narratives in his own ornate, sensory style. The introduction notes that Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy provided corrections for the spelling of proper names in the Indian and Buddhist tales, indicating an effort at accuracy even as Hearn embellishes.
The second half of the volume collects thirty-five short pieces originally published in New Orleans newspapers between 1878 and 1881. Hutson's introduction explains that most appeared in the Item, a paper so obscure that 'the modest Item goes no farther than St. Louis,' as Hearn himself wrote. The sketches range from the whimsical ('The Little Red Kitten') to the macabre ('The Black Cupid,' 'The Undying One'). Hutson singles out 'The Little Red Kitten' and 'At the Cemetery' for their 'simplicity and unaffected tenderness,' contrasting them with the more 'labored' diction of other pieces. He also notes that 'The Fountain of Gold' was later revised into 'A Tropical Intermezzo' in Leaves from the Diary of an Impressionist, and that 'A Dead Love' was reworked as 'L'Amour après la Mort.' These comparisons reveal Hearn's habit of refining his early material.
Hutson's introduction provides a useful lens for reading the collection. He observes that the 'Fantastics' proper and the 'Other Fancies' are grouped chronologically but 'differ greatly in spirit and in excellence of style.' Some pieces, like 'The Little Red Kitten,' are praised for their 'delicate humor' and 'pathos,' while others—'The Black Cupid,' 'Aphrodite and the King's Prisoner'—are noted for their 'imaginative magnificence' and 'weird melody.' Hutson also points out that 'The Tale of a Fan' may contain the germ of a later, lost piece called 'A Hemisphere in a Woman's Hair.' This editorial note, written by a contemporary who knew Hearn, adds a layer of biographical and critical context, framing the sketches not as mere juvenilia but as essential to understanding Hearn's development.
Readers approaching this volume should be aware that the two halves demand different expectations. The retold legends are compact, exotic, and often somber; the newspaper sketches are more varied, ranging from sentimental to grotesque. Hutson's introduction, though occasionally evaluative, offers valuable clues about which pieces Hearn himself valued enough to revise. The collection as a whole reveals a writer experimenting with voice and form, drawing on world traditions while also mining his own immediate surroundings for fantastical material.
I keep thinking about how Hearn gathers those old tales from so many distant places, and yet they all feel like quiet, familiar shadows. That same hush settles in the Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 — Themes and Context, like stepping into a room where someone else’s memory still lingers. It stayed with me long after I closed it, softly.
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