The Real World Of Faeries by Dora Van Gelder
(forward by Caitlin Matthews)

A First-Person Account

The font type is really good.

Comprehension level is average.

There’s no pictures.

This book is really unusual in the sense that Ms. Van Gelder didn’t write it from the ‘usual fluff’ of legend or the Grimms Bros., (but some of the actions & descriptions reminded me of the Disney Bros.)
Ms. Matthews, the forward writer, tells of her own personal experiences with the fae-folk and almost slipping into the fairy realm. The front cover says she’s a Celtic folklore expert.

Ms. Van Gelder travels to many countries and covers many different fairies, angels and spirits. It’s such a curious  book and left me with a few questions that should have been addressed while Ms. Van Gelder was writing about the encounters. One of which is about when Ms. Van Gelder sit amongst a group of fae. Why did she ignore all of them except one? She said they all wanted her attention, so why did she only speak to one and not the others?

Ms. Van Gelder was born in 1904 and claimed to have seen fairies and other mystical beings all her life. She has really good descriptions, but there’s not a doodle, sketch, drawing or photo anywhere in this book. I can’t figure out why the editor or publisher didn’t hire an artist to sketch a few visual representations of Ms. Van Gelder’s descriptions.

I really liked this book because it’s so different from the legends and lore.  I recommend it if you’re wanting to break away from the old folklore and read more personal views from more modern perspectives.

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