Synopses & Reviews
The stories of magic and transformation that we call fairy tales are one of the oldest known forms of literature, and also one of the most popular and enduring. While most people think of the fairy tale as having come into existence almost magically long ago, they are in fact still being created. And while they are principally directed to children and have child protagonists, these modern fairy tales, like the classics, have messages to those of all ages. In The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales, editor Alison Lurie collects such modern stories of the late nineteenth century up to the present. Here are trolls and princesses, magic and mayhem, morals to be told and lessons to be learned--all the elements of the classic fairy tale, in new and marvelous stories. Including the works of Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, George MacDonald, Mary De Morgan, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Joan Aiken, Carl Sandburg, Angela Carter, James Thurber, Louise Erdrich, and many more, here is a treasury of tales that, though set in an unreal and irrelevant universe, have much to tell us about the real world in which we live.
Synopsis
'The stories of magic and transformation that we call fairy tales are one of the oldest known forms of literature, and also one of the most popular and enduring. While most people think of the fairy tale as having come into existence almost magically long ago, they are in fact still being
created. And while they are principally directed to children and have child protagonists, these modern fairy tales, like the classics, have messages to those of all ages. In The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales, editor Alison Lurie collects such modern stories of the late nineteenth century up to
the present. Here are trolls and princesses, magic and mayhem, morals to be told and lessons to be learned--all the elements of the classic fairy tale, in new and marvelous stories. Including the works of Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, George MacDonald, Mary De Morgan, H.G. Wells, Robert
Louis Stevenson, Joan Aiken, Carl Sandburg, Angela Carter, James Thurber, Louise Erdrich, and many more, here is a treasury of tales that, though set in an unreal and irrelevant universe, have much to tell us about the real world in which we live.'
About the Author
Alison Lurie is the Frederic J. Whiton Professor of American Literature at Cornell University, where she also teaches folklore and children's literature. She is the author of eight novels, including
The War Between the Tates,
Foreign Affairs, and
The Truth About Lorin Jones. She has published a collection of essays on children's literature,
Don't Tell the Grown-Ups, a book on the semiotics of dress,
The Language of Clothes, and three collections of traditional folktales.
Table of Contents
Uncle David's Nonsensical Story about Giants and Fairies (1839),
Catherine Sinclair