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''Puck of Pook's Hill'' is a fantasy book by Rudyard Kipling,〔(Rudyard Kipling biography )〕 published in 1906, containing a series of short stories set in different periods of English history. It can count both as historical fantasy – since some of the stories told of the past have clear magical elements, and as contemporary fantasy – since it depicts a magical being active and practising his magic in the England of the early 1900s when the book was written. The stories are all narrated to two children living near Burwash, in the area of Kipling's own house Bateman's, by people magically plucked out of history by the elf Puck, or told by Puck himself. (Puck, who refers to himself as "the oldest Old Thing in England", is better known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''.) The genres of particular stories range from authentic historical novella (A Centurion of the Thirtieth, On the Great Wall) to children's fantasy (Dymchurch Flit). Each story is bracketed by a poem which relates in some manner to the theme or subject of the story. Donald Mackenzie, who wrote the introduction for the Oxford World's Classics edition〔(''Puck of Pook's Hill'' – Introduction ), Kipling.org〕 of ''Puck of Pook's Hill'' in 1987, has described this book as an example of archaeological imagination that, in fragments, delivers a look at the history of England, climaxing with the signing of Magna Carta. Puck calmly concludes the series of stories: "Weland gave the Sword, The Sword gave the Treasure, and the Treasure gave the Law. It's as natural as an oak growing." The first edition was illustrated by H. R. Millar. ''Puck of Pook's Hill'' was followed four years later by the second volume, ''Rewards and Fairies''. ==Stories and poems== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Puck of Pook's Hill」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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