Fairy tales can make children and adults kinder and more resilient by reminding us that both the terrible and the transcendent come from the same source. In the midst of Ireland's war for independence in 1920, James Stephens wrote "Irish Fairy Tales" to transport readers to a world where beauty and brutality coexist. Arthur Rackham's illustrations magnify the enchantment of the stories with their visual poetics. The stories explore the fantasy of mitigating the ills of human nature with nature's benevolence, as characters transform into animals to seek justice and goodness.
