My first book for Maggie’s Southern Reading Challenge is the Robber Bridegroom - my first experience with Eudora Welty, and it was not at all what I expected. I expected a more serious author - and maybe she is in her other works, but in the Robber Bridegroom she's created a delightfully unbelievable, far-fetched and bizarre "tall tale."

Many of the elements of a fairy tale are there– Salome, the ugly and wicked stepmother, Rosamond, the beautiful daughter, Clement, the naive and loving father, and Jamie, the handsome hero. The story takes place along the Natchez Trace in Mississippi with "Red Indians", robbers and a few real life American characters (Mike Fink, the Harp Brothers), filling up the bad guy roles. Rosamond's adoring father, Clement Musgrove, is a wealthy planter who meets Jamie at an inn, where he is saved from a savage death at the hands of Fink, and unwittingly brings his disruptive presence into the Musgrove family.

Many deaths, lies, misunderstandings and berry stains later, Rosamond and Jamie do live happily ever after. . . and Rosamond even starts telling the truth. . . well mostly the truth, "it was all true but the blue canopy".

I enjoyed this book a lot, and will definitely look for some more Welty to read.