Hildred Geertz, Ph.D. (1956), Professor Emeritus, Princeton University, has published five books on Indonesian matters including Tales from a Charmed Life, an autobiography of Batuan painter, Ida Bagus Mad e Togog, and Images of Power, a study of the content of the Batuan paintings and texts collected by Gregory Bateson.

"L’étude que Hildred Geertz nous livre ici de la tradition orale à Batuan constitue un complément bienvenu à son travail précédemment publié sur ce village. Rigoureusement étayé et élégamment rédigé, appuyé sur une longue expérience de terrain, son dernier ouvrage fournit un accès inédit à l’univers mental traditionnel des Balinais." – Michel Picard, in Archipel 97 (2019), p. 299-301."This book uses the unexpected tactics of approaching a hidden oral tradition by means of analyzing the tales related to paintings. […] I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Indonesian or Balinese folkloristics. The extensive databases in both appendices provide an essential reference for story-telling research in insular Southeast Asia." – Aone van Engelenhoven, Leiden University, in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 174 (2018), p. 291–362."Hildred Geertz's study of sotrytelling in Batuan is a welcome addition to the work that she has previously published on this village. It is both rigorously researched and wirtten beautifully - with the assurance of an anthropologist who has a long experience of fieldwork on Bali. It will prove invaluable for readers of English who will have access, for the first time, to the tales that are still so much part of Balinese traditional lore."– Michel Picard, Centre Asie du Sud-Est, in Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 33.1 (2018), p. 202-26.

• Chapter One: Storytelling in Pre-Modern BaliChapter Two: The World of the Storytellers Chapter Three: The Circulation of Popular TalesChapter Four: Interpreting the Batuan Tales Chapter Five: Storytelling as an Engine of Social ChangeBibliographyIndexAppendix 1: The Batuan Painter/StorytellersAppendix 2: The Batuan Texts in English, with Annotations and Illustrations