Through the years, Howard Schwartz has deepened appreciation of the heritage of Jewish literature — as well as delighted readers — with his collections of parables, mythology and other sources of inherited lore and wisdom.

With his new collection of 100 classic tales, Schwartz, a professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, not only adds to that body of work but helps enhance the reader's understanding of what has made these timeless stories endure.

In the learned introduction to "Leaves From the Garden of Eden," Schwartz performs the admirable feat of dissecting how and why these tales have lasted so long without allowing the spotlight he shines on them to reduce their ability to delight.

So he explains why Jews, often called the people of the book, "could also be called the People of the Stories, for as they wandered from place to place, they always took their stories with them."

The four types of tales — fairy tales, folk tales, supernatural tales and mystical tales — serve different purposes, but each helps enrich the oral tradition of a people who passed them down from generation to generation.

Just as there are four kinds of tales, within the Jewish mythical imagination Schwartz finds 10 primary categories, from myths of God to myths of the Messiah. Finally, he defines what makes these Jewish tales Jewish: often a quest or a divine test that the main character must fulfill or pass before getting to the moral of the story.

To Schwartz, then, Jewish folklore works "like an archeological dig," going underneath the surface to mine a richer, more valuable meaning than may first appear to be present.

Readers who leaf through this treasury will find a fairly standard cast of characters: princesses and slaves, beggars and kings, fantastical animals and terrifying denizens of a darker world. But with Schwartz as their guide through this Garden of Eden, they will find not only enchanting stories but a new understanding of a heritage that lives on, strongly.

They will learn about quests and divine tests, history and faith. And most importantly, that knowledge can help them carry the tales to new generations.

Dale Singer was a reporter and editor at the Post-Dispatch for more than 28 years. He lives in west St. Louis County.