J. E. B. Gray

This is a collection of Indian myths and folktales retold by Gray. It includes a section on the famour Indian myth, The Ramayana about Rama and his wife Sita The stories were mostly short focusing on morals and moral judgements which seem to be the focal point for a good upbringing. In these tales the good usually(not always!) won and the wicked were punnished for succuming to greed, counting their blessings before they had them in their hands and being false.

My favourite tale was a very short one called Mousey the Merchant which was about a merchant who began a very prosperous business by selling a dead mouse and it snow balling from there! I also really enjoyed the final series of tales The Vetala's Stories which was three stories within a larger one. It had some interesting challenges which made the reader think along with the King in the tale.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, especially all the animal tales. The animals were not the usual Western animals and included vultures and a mongoose which made it a little different. I also enjoyed the involvement of the gods in the tales as well as demons and fairies and some wicked people being able to find redemption mixed in amongst those who deserved their fates.… (meer)