Description
Book SynopsisFrom wicked queens, beautiful princesses, elves, monsters, and goblins to giants, glass slippers, poisoned apples, magic keys, and mirrors, the characters and images of fairy tales have cast a spell over readers and audiences, both adults and children, for centuries. These fantastic stories have travelled across cultural borders, and been passed on from generation to generation, ever-changing, renewed with each re-telling. Few forms of literature have greater power to enchant us and rekindle our imagination than a fairy tale. But what is a fairy tale? Where do they come from and what do they mean? What do they try and communicate to us about morality, sexuality, and society? The range of fairy tales stretches across great distances and time; their history is entangled with folklore and myth, and their inspiration draws on ideas about nature and the supernatural, imagination and fantasy, psychoanalysis, and feminism. Marina Warner has loved fairy tales over a long writing life, and she
Trade Reviewdynamic history * Guardian *
10 concise, gripping chapters - the one on Magic and Metamorphosis is particularly fascinating. * The Lady *
slim but highly readable volume * Shropshire Star *
Table of ContentsPrologue 1: The Worlds of Faery: Far Away and Down Below 2: With a Stroke of Her Wand: Magic and Metamorphosis 3: Voices on the Page: Tales, Tellers, and Translators 4: Potato Soup: True Stories/Real Life 5: Childish Things: Pictures and Conversations 6: On the Couch: House Training the Id 7: In the Dock: Don't Bet on the Prince 8: Double Vision: The Dream of Reason 9: On Stage and Screen: States of Illusion Epilogue Index
