Week 2 Reading Anthology

 

(Bouquet of roses to illustrate those from the story, found on Wikimedia Commons)

For this assignment, I had a feeling I knew which anthology I would like best, and I was right. I absolutely loved reading the fairytale "The Key of Gold" by Josef Baudis. This story definitely reminded me of the Disney classic "Beauty and the Beast," and I liked it for similar reasons.

    In this story, there are three characters: the mother, Mary (the daughter), and the basilik. My favorite character in this fairytale is Mary; and even though it's a short story, I like Mary best for the development we see take place. The whole reason why Mary is put into a love bond with the basilik is because of her mother, but Mary never blames her mother or complains about her circumstances. However, when called upon by the basilik to stand up for herself, she does; and that is when the basilik is revealed to be a beautiful young man. 

    Baudis' ability to create such a development with such a short story is incredibly impressive and admirable as an author. When storytelling, the whole point is to take your audience somewhere they've never been and see things they've never seen. Baudis was very successful in this, as I found myself entranced by the beauty of roses and captivated by an unusual love story. It's the fairytales like these that make me fall in love with writing and the simplicity of storytelling.