Product Description

Not since Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment has there been such an illuminating contribution to the world of children's fairy tales.

The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales celebrates the best-loved stories of childhood through the vision of Maria Tatar, a leading expert in the field of folklore and children's literature. Challenging the notion that fairy tales can be read for their morals and used to make model citizens of little children, Tatar guides readers through the stories, exploring their historical origins, their cultural complexities, and their psychological effects. By providing children with powerful models for navigating reality, Tatar shows, these tales help children survive in a world ruled by adults. Tatar presents twenty-six classic stories—including "Beauty and the Beast," "Little Red Hiding Hood," "Jack and the Beanstalk," and "The Little Mermaid." She has personally retranslated the stories that did not appear originally in English and has also assembled over 300 often rare, mostly four-color photographs, paintings, and illustrations, creating a volume that will rank as one of the finest fairy tale collections in many decades. 350 four-color illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #74640 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 445 pages

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-The level of content, commentary, and art in this beautifully designed volume will confound anyone who contends that fairy tales are "just for kids." Tatar presents fresh and appealing translations of 26 traditional stories (primarily European), accompanied by engrossing annotations placed attractively in the wide margins of the large-sized pages. In clear, accessible prose, she links the tales to their original oral traditions and cultural contexts, and discusses the varied interpretations imposed by critics over time and across philosophical and psychological perspectives. Hundreds of high-quality, color reproductions of period illustrations illuminate and enhance Tatar's cogent remarks about the power of illustrators to influence and comment on a story through visual interpretation. The supplemental sections are as fascinating as the main material: biographies of authors, collectors, and illustrators; variant texts of "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Three Bears"; the illustrations of Walter Crane and George Cruikshank; and an extensive bibliography. This book offers multiple pleasures for browsing, pondering, and sharing, and is as good a source for reading aloud as for research.
Starr E. Smith, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The publisher, which has had great success with its series of annotated children's books (e.g., Alice in Wonderland, Huckleberry Finn), takes on all the great fairy tales.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The commentary is as fascinating as the stories and art in this large-size collection of 26 classic, mainly European, fairy tales, which have been newly translated in an immediate colloquial style. "Spare me your blubbering!" the witch tells Gretel. "Do I have to go as I am, in these shabby clothes?" Cinderella asks her fairy godmother. True to the oral tradition, each lively tale is perfect for reading aloud; but in addition, Harvard professor Tatar brings folklore scholarship to the general reader with annotations right there in the margins of the spacious pages. She talks about historical context, psychology, feminism, cultural variations, and more. She also includes more than 300 color illustrations by classic artists and discusses how they extend the stories. Far from any therapeutic approach, in Tatar's view, fairy tales say that life is hard and the pleasure is in defeating those "giant stepmothers, ogres, monsters, and trolls also known as grownups." With a lengthy bibliography and biographies of authors, artists, and collectors, this is for folklore collections as well as for storytellers in the library and at home. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

The art alone makes it a "must-buy"
This is one of the most beautiful books ever printed and a wonderful introduction to the archive of great Victorian and Edwardian illustrated versions of the classic fairy tales. I was a little disappointed with the text, however. Tatar's introduction and annotations are insightful enough, if a little sparing, but her translations of the twenty-six fairy tales represented in this volume are surprisingly flat in comparison with the 300 illustrations, many of which are reprinted in full color. It's a pity Tatar didn't use translations from the same period. I know some of these are excessively bowdlerized, but others, such as Lucy Crane's versions from "Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm," are as engaging as the pictures they accompanied. Still, this book is a "must-buy" for anyone interested in fairy tales or the Golden Age of the illustrated picture book. The sumptuous reproductions of "Little Red Riding Hood" and the seven other fairly tale adaptations from the Walter Crane "Toy Book" series alone are worth the cover price.

Utterly Delightful
I am always fascinated by annotations of classic works because of the insights I gain from them. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales is especially interesting because the works Maria Tatar includes are familiar (at least most of them are) but, her notes reveal, have a much deeper and sometimes darker history than we thought. The book includes some universal favorites like The Emperor's New Clothes and Cinderella and some less known but interesting stories like Molly Whuppie and The Juniper Tree. Each story has a great variety of classic illustrations from masters like Cruikshank and Dore. Another nice touch are the biographies of some of the authors and illustrators included at the end. Whether you are a child, have a child, or are a child at heart, you will love this collection.

Child Magic
We got this book as an impulse purchase from my Dad when we all [my daughter Emily, Dad and I] were waiting for the restaurant buzzer to go off at the Mall. Emily, age 9, could not wait til we got home, and was entranced by the glorious illustrations all through dinner. We've been sharing the stories in read aloud mode for the past four days--Emily likes to read to me a bit too-- and the old tales we all love like Red Riding Hood and Cinderella come to new life in Prof. Tatar's wonderful translations which seem perfectly suited for reading aloud. Emily has really taken the "moral" parts of these stories to heart, especially after 9/11, and she seems able to see in her own developing way how complex and challenging the world can be. This classic selection of tales has just been a wonderful resource. Somewhere in the introduction Prof. Tatar says these stories were orginally created to help children, and adults, 'navigate' the moral and ethical uncertainties of a changing time, and that is so true, especially if you share this book with a child. It is just a wonderfully created book with beautiful illustrations and stories, a book to treasure. I highly recommend this for all parents who want to share stories with their children.