The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales by Maria Tatar

Tatar prefers admirably modern translations to strict literalism, an approach that is especially felicitous in handling the often formal diction of the original tales. 'Puss in Boots' is here, and 'The Three Bears,' as well as 'The Three Little Pigs,' 'Snow White,' 'Beauty and the Beast' and the rest you'd expect to find. The volume contains biographies of authors and illustrators and a detailed bibliography, as well as Tatar's translations and annotations of 26 fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault and others.

Like an explorer with a flashlight in an antique and frightening attic, Tatar sweeps away the webs spun by Sigmund Freud, Bruno Bettelheim and even Walt Disney to provide a clear picture of this special room in the realm of literature. This book redeems the bloody tales, because Tatar's excellent introduction and absorbing annotations explain exactly what various storytellers are doing, set the stories in their historical context, and expose the diverse psychological theories that, cobweblike, have gathered around Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, the Ugly Duckling and their folkloric relatives. In her many other books, she argues that adults have long waged a subtle psychological war against their children by terrifying them with stories depicting gruesome punishments for disobedience. Tatar is renowned for rescuing children from the role of blameworthy victims in folklore. This lets you compare distinct visions of Bluebeard, his wife, the famous key and the horrors within the locked room. In the chapter on Bluebeard, for example, you can study the art of Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham, Gustave Dore, Hermann Vogel and many others. Tatar accompanies each illustration with a caption explaining its visual motifs, connections to other fairy tales and the styles of the various artists. It is pleasingly large-scale and contains more than 300 colored paintings and drawings, many of them rare. Beauty and justice: You won't find a better book that provides both in this field.Īs a piece of art, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales is breathtaking.

A Harvard professor of Germanic literatures, author of The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales (1987) and Off With Their Heads!: Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood (1992), she is one of the world's foremost authorities on fairy tales and, like scholar-anthologist Jack Zipes, concerned with a just representation not only of the tales themselves but also of the reading (and understanding) habits of the children who are their primary audience. Maria Tatar has put together a truly beautiful book. By Reviewed Fiona Kelleghan November 24, 2002

The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales by Maria Tatar