A beautiful hardcover anthology of stories by a brilliant and surprising mix of classic and contemporary writers who have been inspired by trees and forests.   Trees have starred in stories ever since Ovid described the nymph Daphne’s metamorphosis into a laurel, and the landscape of literature has long been enlivened by wild woodlands, sacred groves, and fertile orchards. This delightful collection ranges from Ovid to Austen and from Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest (via Thomas Love Peacock’s Maid Marian) to Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and more stories from Eudora Welty, Tove Jansson, and D.H. Lawrence.   Here are forest-haunted fairy tales both classic (the Brothers Grimm) and inventively retold (Angela Carter). There is room in these woods for comedy as well as terror, in Stella Gibbons’s Cold Comfort Farm, and Alexander McCall Smith’s “Head Tree.” Notable writers from around the world contribute arboreal fiction—from South Africa, Finland, France, Zimbabwe, Russia, Martinique, and India, as well as Britain, Ireland, Canada, and America. From Daphne du Maurier’s “The Apple Tree” to R. K. Narayan’s “Under the Banyan Tree.” The sheer range of stories in these pages will leave readers refreshed and dazzled.   Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.

Preface by Fiona Stafford JOHN LORNE CAMPBELL Why Everyone Should Be Able to Tell a Story                    OVID Orpheus’ Audience of Trees                     ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH Head Tree                                               WASHINGTON IRVING The Legend of Sleepy Hollow                  DAPHNE DU MAURIER The Apple Tree                       SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER Happiness JANE AUSTEN                                   A Tale                              YURI OLYESHA Love                                              D. H. LAWRENCE The Shades of Spring            STELLA GIBBONS From Cold Comfort Farm RODERICK FINLAYSON The Totara Tree                                           EUDORA WELTY A Still Moment        OVID The Transformation of Daphne  MICHAEL MCLAVERTY The Road to the Shore        DOROTHY BAKER Summer            JOSEPH ZOBEL Flowers! Lovely Flowers!       YVONNE VERA Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals     DAMON GALGUT Shadows          TOVE JANSSON The Forest            URSULA MORAY WILLIAMS The Outlaws                THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK From Maid Marian              JACOB AND WILHELM GRIMM Iron Hans         ANGELA CARTER The Company of Wolves      ANDREW LANG The Gold of Fairnilee                    MARY DE MORGAN The Pool and the Tree         JEAN GIONO The Man Who Planted Trees       GABRIEL HEMERY The Man Who Harvested Trees (and Gifted Life)     OVID Baucis and Philemon      R. K. NARAYAN Under the Banyan Tree