Reviews:
"Nearly 70 classics of the literary fairy tale (written for adults) fill this unique and fascinating anthology. The genre attracted such luminaries (represented here) as Voltaire, Goethe, Thackeray, Hawthorne, Yeats, Strindberg, Rilke, Hesse, and Apollinaire, as well as contemporary masters like Calvino, Lem, Coover, and Tournier. As the chronological order of these selections shows, the orientation and emphasis of the wonder tales have shifted over time. But the genre remains a vehicle for the utopian hope of personal or societal redemption and transformation, even amidst the harshest realities. Zipes offers a useful overview of the genre's historical evolution, but his own ideological stance adds an element of the provocative to his many insightful observations. Besides its importance for literary and cultural institutions, this wonder-full collection will surprise and delight the ordinary reader in search of the extraordinary." - Patricia Dooley, Univ. of Washington Lib. Sch., Seattle
-Library Journal
About the Editor:
"Jack David Zipes is a retired Professor of German at the University of Minnesota whose publications and lectures on fairy tales have transformed research on fairy tales and their linguistic roots and socialization function. According to Zipes, fairy tales 'serve a meaningful social function, not just for compensation but for revelation: the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society.'"
- Wikipedia
