Synopses & Reviews
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)
Review
"As befits its subject, it is something of splendor-marvelous, bizarre, exotic- but at the same time as familiar as porridge. It's crammed full of goodies . . . and profusely illustrated . . . It is also simply essential reading for anyone concerned, not only with fairy tales, myths and legends, but also with how stories of all kinds get told."-- Margaret Atwood,
Los Angeles Times Book Review"Warner's book has a tremendous sweep of reference from classical and medieval beliefs about women's tale-spinning powers to the case of Salman Rushdie. It reproduces scores of historical artworks and images from modern popular culture to illustrate the endless migration of symbols and plots from lore to pictures and back . . . Everyone is certain to learn something from such an impressive package of history and cultural observation."--Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
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.