The Classic Fairy Tales: Texts, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)

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Summary: A Guide to Fairy Tales
Review: A collection of fairy tales that have lasted throughout the years, "The Classic Fairy Tales" also offers many essays by the experts in fairy tale. The very best critics including Jack Zipes and Maria Tater, have written well-thought out essays varying from Disney's involvement in fairy tales to the sexuality of these tales. These essays along with the eight stories (Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella, Bluebeard, Hansel and Gretel, four short tales by Hans Christian Anderson, and three by Oscar Wilde) and you get a book which will help you understand not only the tales themselves, but the ideologies, social connections, and cultural importance. This book is definitely a good read.

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Summary: Great for storytellers
Review: A good mixture of browsability and serious reading. For the storyteller this book is a godsend - several variants of each story compiled for easy comparison, with an authoritative commentary for background research. And the variants are often not obvious or well-known, so giving real discoveries and delights. The scholarly essays cover a fair range of subjects, but for those just interested in the stories there is plenty in the rest of the book to satisfy. If this book interests you, try 'The Classic Fairy Tales', by Iona and Peter Opie - same title, similar approach, except that variants are only discussed rather than given in full.

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Summary: The Basis For Many Fairytales
Review: An excellent book if you are struggling with the aquisition of variant sources for a particular fairy tale. A compendium of the well known, and the not so well know fairt tales, this book offers various incantations of 8 fary tales in their entirity. Following this, of particular interest to myself, are written criticisms and analysis of such tales by some of the most recognised names in fairy tale writing including Jack Zipes. Regardless of whether this book contains the tale you are looking for, the broader text that the book offers is certainly worth a look. A much more generalised idea is portrayed with regard to such topics as social origins, cultural resilience and the cultural implications and history of fairy tales as an independent genre. This book serves to bridge the gap between fairy tales that seem to bear no relationship to each other by looking at how these tales have come to be what they are.

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Summary: Mirror, Mirror...
Review: An excellent collection which highlights the grislier, taboo aspects of fairy tales that are often sanitised for today's consumption. As well as traditional versions of the most popular fairy stories, editor Maria Tatar has also included feminist re-tellings of "Bluebeard" and "Beauty and the Beast" by Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter. This fascinating anthology helps to deepen our understanding of the cultural implications of the fairy tale form, and includes essays from important contributors to the field such as Vladmir Propp, Bruno Bettelheim and Marina Warner. If you thought that fairy tales were just for children, then you'll find this collection an eye opening experience.

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Summary: Fairy Tale Feast
Review: I used this volume in a college course and expected a real snooze. But, to my surprise, the stories were enticing and the intros even better! I highly recommend this anothology to any curious learner, for study or for pleasure!!

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Summary: excellent introduction to folklore
Review: I was glad to find this volume, which offers different versions of popular fairy tales and shows their cultural variation. Commentary is helpful and to the point, with good bibliographical resources. I needed to find a guide to Cinderella stories and this gave me just what I needed and more. A good antidote to Bettelheim's overly Freudian interpretations of fairy tales.

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Summary: Good resource for beginning fairy tale scholars
Review: Tatar has contributed several works to fairy tale scholarship, but this is one of the best for an introductory course. The book offers essays and fictional variations for well known fairy tales including Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Bluebeard, etc. The collection includes a story by Margaret Atwood, poetry by Anne Sexton, and more traditional versions of the tales from older sources. New translations by Tatar of some tales are also presented. I highly recommend this book.