Series ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook
Irish Fairy Tales
W. B. Yeats, Editor, William Carleton, Crofton Croker, Douglas Hyde, Dr. P. W. Joyce, Gerald Griffen, Lady Wilde, Michael Hart, Samuel Lover & Standish O'Grady · 2023
🎙 Narrated by John Dunleavy (The Seanchai, Unexpurgated Edition, April 2023)
67/100
👎 Skip It
This is a big, historically real anthology of Irish fairy lore with Yeats's own scholarly notes tucked in, which gives it more weight than a simple retelling. Being 'unexpurgated,' though, means the changeling and fairy-abduction stories come through uncut, so I'd preview before handing it to younger kids. John Dunleavy's narration didn't turn up any independent reviews I could find, so I can't speak to how well it holds together across so many different authors' voices.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Changeling/fairy-abduction folklore themes are unsettling in the unexpurgated, uncut text — recommend parental preview for younger children before family listening.. We still scored it 67; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
▶ Listen to a sample
🎙 Narration: unknown John Dunleavy narrates this 2023 unexpurgated edition; I found no independent performance reviews to vouch for pacing or character work across the many contributors.
🎧 Listen free with an Audible trial ↗ Find it on Audible ↗📚 In print ↗📱 On Kindle ↗ affiliate links · support the site, never the verdict
As an Amazon Associate and Audible affiliate, Penny earns from qualifying purchases. This never affects the verdict — see our affiliate disclosure.
Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety62
Substance / usefulness80
Craft & writing65
Originality70
Evidence & accuracy78
Hype vs delivers65
Age-fit58
Human-eye read72
Penny’s verdict67
Cross-pollinate