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From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers

From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers Cover

ISBN13: 9780374524876
ISBN10: 0374524874
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In this landmark study of the history and meaning of fairy tales, the celebrated cultural critic Marina Warner looks at storytelling in art and legend-from the prophesying enchantress who lures men to a false paradise, to jolly Mother Goose with her masqueraders in the real world. Why are storytellers so often women, and how does that affect the status of fairy tales? Are they a source of wisdom or a misleading temptation to indulge in romancing?

Review:

"In this detailed and engaging study, Warner traces the origins of the fairy tale and its tellers going as far back as the classical Sibyl and neatly bringing us up to date by including contemporary writers such as Italo Calvino and Angela Carter. What follows is a study that touches on the religious, mythical, and secular influences which have shaped both the story and the story-teller. The importance of the link between women's history and storytelling is explained by Warner who states: 'Fairy or wonder tales, however farfetched the incidents they concoct, take on the colour of the actual circumstances in which they are or were told.' The focus of this critical study is on fairy tales with family dramas at their heart. In the process Warner herself becomes a spellbinding teller of women's history. Through meticulous gathering of information and intelligent analysis of the tales, Warner goes beyond any previous studies including those by Bruno Bettelheim, Jack Zipcs, Ruth Bottigheimer, and other critics whose importance she acknowledges. This book is a brilliant scholarly work which makes it essential reading for specialists and anyone interested in the genre and in history from a feminist point of view." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)

About the Author

Marina Warner is the author of four novels and many works of nonfiction, notably Alone of All Her Sex and Monuments and Maidens. Recently she edited a collection of six seventeenth-century French fairy tales, Wonder Tales. She lives in London.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
crowyhead, May 1, 2007 (view all comments by crowyhead)
This is an excellent cultural history of fairy tales and the people who tell them. Many studies of fairy tales focus on the archetypes and the psychological symbolism of the tales, but as Warner points out, this kind of broad interpretation ignores the changing cultural context of the stories. For example, the terms "stepmother" and "mother-in-law" used to be interchangeable, which adds another layer to all those stories of wicked stepmothers... The first few chapters of this study are kind of hard going, but once Warner starts examining individual tales like "Cinderella," "Bluebeard," and "Beauty and the Beast," it really gets fascinating.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780374524876
Subtitle:
On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers
Author:
Warner, Marina
Author:
Warner, Marina
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Location:
New York :
Subject:
Folklore & Mythology
Subject:
Children's Literature
Subject:
History and criticism
Subject:
Mythology and folklore
Subject:
Fairy tales
Subject:
Feminist
Subject:
Feminist literary criticism
Edition Description:
1st Noonday Press pbk. ed.
Publication Date:
19960930
Binding:
TP
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
492
Dimensions:
9.15x6.11x1.42 in. 1.85 lbs.
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