Monday 12 January 2009

Not Your Children's Fairy Tales



Considering that Fairy Tales were not originally written for children this may seem redundant, but rewriting fairy tales for a modern adult audience seems to be in vogue at the moment so I thought I'd make a list of some good ones. I'm using the term original tales VERY loosly. Again, the list is not comprehensive - espicially in the originals section - but should steer you towards something intesting to read. The books are listed in no particular order.

“Original” Tales:
Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Other Classic Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault - Angela Carter
Perrault’s Fairy Tales - Charles Perrault
Norwegian Folktales - Peter Christen Asbjornsen
Annotated Hans Christian Anderson - Hans Christian Anderson
Complete Fairytales of the Brothers Grimm - Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Folk & Fairy Tales - Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek, Ed.
Carter’s Fairy Tales - Angela Carter
Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde - Oscar Wilde
Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies - Moss Roberts
Irish Tales of the Fairies and the Ghost World - Jeremiah Curtin
Russian Fairytales - Aleksandr Afans’ev
Arabian Fairy Tales - Amina Shah
Blue Fairy Book - Andrew Lang (has a whole series of coloured fairy books)
Feminist Fairytales - B. Walker
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories - James Finn Garner (out of print)

Short story collections:
Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears - Ellen Datlow, Ed.
Hags, Sirens and other Bad Girls of Fantasy - Denise Little, Ed.
Fair Folk - Marvin Kaye, Ed.

Novels based on Fairy Tales
Stepsister Scheme - Jim Hines
Faery Taile Project: Red’s Tale - Jim Hines
Woodcutter’s Grim Series - Karen Wiesner
Mirror Mirror - Gregory Maguire
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister - Gregory Maguire
Last Wish - Andrzej Sapkowski
Rose Daughter - Robin McKinley
Beauty - Robin McKinley
Spindle’s End - Robin McKinley
Unhandsome Prince - John Moore
Never After - Rebecca Lickiss (out of print)
Once Upon a Winter Night - Dennis McKiernan
Once Upon a Summer Day -
Dennis McKiernan
Once Upon an Autumn Eve
- Dennis McKiernan
Once Upon a Spring Morn - Dennis McKiernan
Once Upon a Dreadful Time - Dennis McKiernan
Fairy Godmother - Mercedes Lackey
Briar Rose - Jane Yolan
Brother Grimm - Craig Russell
Fables 1: Legends in Exile - Bill Willingham and Lan Medina (graphic novel)

Midsummer Night’s Dream
- William Shakespeare
Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
Sandman 3: The Dream Country - Neil Gaiman (graphic novel)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Considering how bloody those stories orginally were, kicking them back up a notch would be a short kick.

DW Golden
Fly with Fairies in a new young adult novel: Purple Butterflies