Folger Book Club
‘Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries’ by Heather Fawcett
Our December selection travels to an icy land of faeries and dark magic as the session explores the role of folklore in Shakespeare’s works. Presented in collaboration with Folger Institute.
Booking and details
Coming SoonDates Thu, Dec 4, 2025, 6:30pm
Venue Folger Virtual
Tickets Free, Registration required
Duration 6:30pm - 8:00pm (ET)
Registration for this session opens Tuesday, November 11 at 4pm, with early access for members beginning at 10am.
Our pick for the December book club is Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett.
About the book
A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk. So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.
Why did we choose this?
The Folger Shakespeare Library’s collection explores not only Shakespeare’s life and works, but also the plays’ historical context, source material, critical and performance histories, and the ways in which they inspire and are adapted by contemporary novelists.
Fairy folklore was prevalent in early modern England and appears in Shakespeare’s plays including A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Led by Folger Institute’s Public Humanities Program Manager, Leah Thomas, author Heather Fawcett joins the book club to discuss this folklore as well as the use of academia and research as in contemporary fantasy literature and how her fairies do (or don’t) behave according to their literary legacy.
About the Book Club
Our informal Book Club is free and open to all. Our picks range from historical fiction to adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, encompassing a wide variety of genres.
Each session begins with a guest speaker exploring that month’s pick and highlighting items from the Folger collection related to the novel. After the short presentation, participants will be broken into smaller groups for breakout discussions, moderated by a team of staff and volunteers.
Content transparency
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries includes potentially sensitive subjects. Expand below for a full list of content (includes spoilers).
- Violence
- Rape
- Injury/Injury detail
- Kidnapping
- Blood
- Death
- Animal death
- Alcohol
- Child abuse
- Murder
Guest speakers
Heather Fawcett
Heather Fawcett is the New York Times, USA Today, and Sunday Times bestselling Canadian author of books for adults, kids, and teens, including Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Even the Darkest Stars, Ember and the Ice Dragons, The Grace of Wild Things, and more. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages and somehow all include dragons in one form or another. She has a Master’s degree in English Literature and a Bachelor’s in Archaeology. She lives on Vancouver Island.
Leah Thomas
Buy the book
Support the Folger Shop with your book purchase.
Fall Folger Book Club selections are now available online and in-person through the Folger Shop!
Click below to purchase your copy of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries online or come visit us at 201 East Capitol St SE during our opening hours.
You can also choose to support your favorite local bookstore through Bookshop.org or Libro.fm.
We would like to thank the following organization for its generous support of this program
