Brownies & Bogles is a charming and well researched and grounded monograph on the fey folk by Louise Imogen Guiney. Originally published in 1888, this reformat and re-release is due out 7th Jan 2025 from Crossed Crow Books as part of their Texts of Antiquity series. It's 200 pages and will be available in paperback format.

There's a spectrum of lore about fairies and supernatural creatures, from the utterly fluffy and harmless/humorous, to the very serious and scholarly. This book falls toward the latter classification on that sliding rule. The terms and descriptions as well as the classifications are presented seriously, utterly devoid of snickers and winks. It's a product of the Victorian era, and it does show its age in some ways, but otherwise is charmingly written and presented in a straightforward, serious manner. It's annotated throughout and the author makes an effort to trace the history, etymology, and lore throughout literature and linguistics (there are LOTS of really interesting tidbits to glean here).

It's annotated throughout with copious footnotes, but there are no chapter notes included in this edition. There is a very abbreviated bibliography, but this edition also lacks an index, which is slightly more problematic for a paperback format.

The book is charmingly illustrated throughout with incidental half page illustrations, margin details, and chapter headings by Edmund H. Garrett. This edition also includes an erudite and well written foreword by Chris Allaun.

This is absolutely not a cute/silly collection of tales, but a serious scholarly presentation of a supernatural subject within the lore. Whatever readers' personal beliefs are about other realms and beings, it has value as a fairly thorough evaluation and historical snapshot of the fair folk during the late Victorian period. The same care is evident in this volume as other translations and records of similar works (c.f. Evangeline Walton's translation of the Mabinogion).

Five stars for the execution and care, and for bringing otherwise lost works to a new generation of readers. It would be a good choice for library acquisition, readers' home use, or possibly as a support or supplemental text for allied studies (history, literature, fantasy, speculative fiction, religious studies, etc).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.