Bibliograph

Fairy tale, a very short introduction, Marina Warner

Type

Label

Fairy tale, a very short introduction, Marina Warner

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 139-147) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Fairy tale

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1023617614

Responsibility statement

Marina Warner

Series statement

Very short introductions, v. 550

Sub title

a very short introduction

Summary

These fantastic stories have travelled across cultural borders, and been passed on from generation to generation, ever-changing, renewed with each re-telling. Few forms of literature have greater power to enchant us and rekindle our imagination than a fairy tale. But what is a fairy tale? Where do they come from and what do they mean? What do they try and communicate to us about morality, sexuality, and society? The range of fairy tales stretches across great distances and time; their history is entangled with folklore and myth, and their inspiration draws on ideas about nature and the supernatural, imagination and fantasy, psychoanalysis, and feminism. In this Very Short Introduction, Marina Warner digs into a rich hoard of fairy tales in all their brilliant and fantastical variations, in order to define a genre and evaluate a literary form that keeps shifting through time and history. Drawing on a glittering array of examples, from classics such as Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and The Sleeping Beauty, the Grimm Brothers' Hansel and Gretel, and Hans Andersen's The Little Mermaid, to modern-day realizations including Walt Disney's Snow White, Warner forms a persuasive case for fairy tale as a crucial repository of human understanding and culture

Target audience

adult

Classification