Once Upon a Time

Description

In ten succinct chapters, Marina Warner guides us through the rich world of fairy tale, from Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel to Snow White and Pan's Labyrinth. Exploring pervasive themes of folklore, myth, the supernatural, imagination, and fantasy, Warner highlights the impact of the genre on human understanding, history, and culture.

• A lively and engaging exploration of fairy tales and their meaning
• Considers fairy tale as both a genre and a literary form
• Explores an array of classic and contemporary examples
• Looks at the cultural, social, and political influence of fairy tales
• Reveals how fairy tales use the characteristics of fantasy and the imagination
• Highlights questions of gender, feminism, and psychoanalysis in the fairy tale tradition
• Considers a number of visual interpretations on stage and screen

About the Author(s)

Marina Warner, Writer, historian, cultural critic, and novelist; Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford

Marina Warner's award-winning studies of mythology and fairy tales include Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (1976; re-issued 2013), Stranger Magic: Charmed States & the Arabian Nights (2012), From the Beast to the Blonde - on Fairy Tales and their Tellers (1994), Monuments & Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form (1985), and No Go the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock (1998). Her Clarendon Lectures Fantastic Metamorphoses; Other Worlds were published in 2001. In 2015 she was awarded the Holberg Prize, and in 2013 she was awarded a Sheykh Zayed Prize and the Truman Capote Award. She was awarded a CBE for services to Literature in 2008. She is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the British Academy.

Table of Contents

Prologue
1:The Worlds of Faery: Far Away and Down Below
2:With a Stroke of Her Wand: Magic and Metamorphosis
3:Voices on the Page: Tales, Tellers, and Translators
4:Potato Soup: True Stories/Real Life
5:Childish Things: Pictures and Conversations
6:On the Couch: House Training the Id
7:In the Dock: Don't Bet on the Prince
8:Double Vision: The Dream of Reason
9:On Stage and Screen: States of Illusion
Epilogue
Index

Reviews

"dynamic history" - Guardian

"10 concise, gripping chapters - the one on Magic and Metamorphosis is particularly fascinating." - The Lady

"slim but highly readable volume" - Shropshire Star