The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales - Softcover

Zipes, Jack David

4.2

287 ratings by Goodreads

9780198605096: The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198605099 ISBN 13: 9780198605096

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2002

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Where do fairy tales come from? Why do we find them so enchanting? What is it about them that is so magical? From its origins in the oral tradition to the modern methods of storytelling through film and television, the fairy tale has always had a powerful grip over the cultural imagination of the Western world. Under the editorial guidance of Jack Zipes, 67 expert contributors have come together to combine their insight and expertise on all aspects of the fairy tale tradition. The result is a unique synthesis of knowledge making this the most authoritative and wide-ranging reference work on the study of the Western fairy tale available. To what extent was Enid Blyton inspired by fairy tales, reading 'every single old myth and legend I could get hold of'? What influence has Walt Disney had on the modern perception of certain classic fairy tales? Where did the Moomins come from? Under what title was Alice in Wonderland first published? In what different ways have fairy tales been portrayed on film? To what extent was the story of Hansel and Gretel auto-biographical? Why has Irish folklore had such a big influence on American film and stage? What inspired Edward Elgar to put fairy tales to music? What is the difference between science fiction and fairy tales? What are the philosophical overtones in 'The Little Mermaid'? Who supposedly inspired the character Peter Pan and why is the story so popular? What are the similarities between The Arabian Nights and Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children? Who are the most famous Norwegian fairy tale characters? Which two famous fairy tale characters inspired Stephen Spielberg's E.T.? What traces of the politics and society of the American Midwest during the late 1890s can be seen in The Wizard of Oz? Entries include: Tales - Alice in Wonderland, 'Beauty and the Beast', 'The Frog King', 'Hansel and Gretel', Jack tales, 'Little Red Riding Hood', 'Melusine', The Adventures of Pinocchio, 'The Princess and the Pea', 'Rapunzel', 'Rumpelstiltskin', 'Sleeping Beauty', 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', 'The Ugly Duckling' Characters - Aladdin, Ali Baba, Baba Yaga, Mother Goose, Mrs Pepperpot, Peter Pan Film, Stage, and Television - Babes in Toyland, ballet, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, Chu Chin Chow, Walt Disney, Hans Christian Andersen, Jim Henson, The Little Prince, Once Upon a Mattress, Sindbad, Steven Spielberg, Shirley Temple, Willow Writers from the past - Louisa May Alcott, Hans Christian Andersen, J. M. Barrie, Lewis Caroll, Kenneth Grahame, Brothers Grimm, C. S. Lewis, Richard Scarry, William Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, J. R. R. Tolkien Writers from the present - Margaret Attwood, A. S. Byatt, Roald Dahl, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Terry Jones, Terry Pratchett Illustrators - Edward Ardizzone, Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, Kate Greenaway, Maurice Sendak Composers - Claude Debussy, Edward Elgar, Leos Janacek, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner Other topics related to fairy tales and folklore - advertising, cartoons, communist folk-tale films, fantasy literature, feminism, greetings cards, mythology, opera, oral tradition, poetry, postcards, science fiction, stamps, television Feature entries highlighting countries with a strong fairy tale tradition - British and Irish fairy tales, France, Germany, Italy, North American and Canadian fairy tales, Portuguese fairy tales, Scandinavian countries, Slavic and Baltic countries, Spain With an in-depth introduction by Jack Zipes and an extensive bibliography to complement the A-Z entries, this is the essential companion for anyone interested in literature, film, or art, or for anyone who values the tradition of storytelling.

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Review:

The fairy tale--a story in which the characters, by means of a series of transformations, discover their true selves--is the foundation stone of all modern fiction. The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales charts the way in which the themes and concerns of traditional oral fairy tales have been adopted and themselves transformed by literary authors.

Jack Zipes--editor of two fine anthologies, Victorian Fairy Tales and Spells of Enchantment--provides an excellent introduction, showing a much more subtle and inclusive understanding of the fairy tale than his early polemical books such as Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion. "The focus of this Companion," he writes, "is essentially on the literary formation of the Western fairy-tale genre and its expansion into opera, theatre, film, and other related cultural forms."

This is a wide brief, but Zipes and his collaborators tackle it with zest and authority. The shortcomings--nothing on the spellbinding fairy tales of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav, for instance--are far outweighed by the virtues. There are definitive short essays on topics such as "Advertising and Fairy Tales" or "Fairy Tales and Poetry"; there are sound entries on individual writers such as Angela Carter, or fairy tales such as Cinderella; and there are overviews of the fairy tale tradition in various cultures.

As a one-stop shop for information on the Western fairy tale, this book is a rich and valuable resource. --Neil Philip

Review:

"this is thoroughly researched, impartial, scholarly, wonderfully illustrated and enormous fun" -- The Independent on Sunday

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