Maria Tatar is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. She is the author of Annotated Classic Fairy Tales (W. W. Norton), Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood, and Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar Germany (both Princeton).
"Tatar's main concern is with the enduring hold of the tales on
children's imaginations. Why should they enjoy stories about other
children sent out to die in a wood, or being victimized by cruel
stepmothers, or given impossible tasks to perform, and (if female)
forced to marry frogs or bears? . . . The Hard Facts of the Grimms'
Fairy Tales--related in language that is sharp, lively, and free of
jargon--is delightful evidence that Grimm scholarship can give
pleasure to the general reader."---Janet Adam Smith, New York
Review of Books
"For scholars, students, and general readers, Tatar's book is a
balanced, sensitive, and informative guide to the content and
context of Grimms' fairy tales."---Merle Rubin, The Christian
Science Monitor
"Tatar takes detours into literary history here and into
comparative anthropology there. What results is at once
intelligently eclectic and refreshingly commonsensical, a
thoughtful ramble through the dark childhood woods that haunt our
adult dreams."---Carl Maves, San Francisco Chronicle
"A clear, imaginative and fascinating illumination of the stories
we thought we knew."
*Los Angeles Times Book Review*
"Tatar's main concern is with the enduring hold of the tales on
children's imaginations. Why should they enjoy stories about other
children sent out to die in a wood, or being victimized by cruel
stepmothers, or given impossible tasks to perform, and (if female)
forced to marry frogs or bears? . . . The Hard Facts of the
Grimms' Fairy Tales--related in language that is sharp, lively,
and free of jargon--is delightful evidence that Grimm scholarship
can give pleasure to the general reader."---Janet Adam Smith,
New York Review of Books
"For scholars, students, and general readers, Tatar's book is a
balanced, sensitive, and informative guide to the content and
context of Grimms' fairy tales."---Merle Rubin, The Christian
Science Monitor
"Tatar takes detours into literary history here and into
comparative anthropology there. What results is at once
intelligently eclectic and refreshingly commonsensical, a
thoughtful ramble through the dark childhood woods that haunt our
adult dreams."---Carl Maves, San Francisco Chronicle
"A clear, imaginative and fascinating illumination of the stories
we thought we knew." * Los Angeles Times Book Review
*
This erudite, cogent perusal of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm's Nursery and Household Tales is, for the most part, accessible to a lay audience. Tatar charts the evolution of the tales through manuscript form and the various editions, and offers what she maintains is the first complete English translation of the prefaces to the first and second editions. The Grimms abandoned a scholarly effort to salvage pure remnants of folk poetry, advances Tatar, and ``with each new edition, the tales veered more sharply away from the rough-hewn simplicity of their first versions to a sanitized and stylized literary form that proved attractive to both parents and children.'' She demonstrates how the Grimms purged the collection of references to sexuality and incestuous desire but intensified violence, particularly when it took the form of revenge. In opposition to child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, Tatar warns that some cautionary tales may instill fear, rather than confidence, in children; regarding ``Bluebeard,'' she faults Bettelheim for turning a tale depicting the most brutal kind of serial murders into a story about idle female curiosity and duplicity. Tatar (Spellbound: Studies on Mesmerism and Literature) chairs the German literature department at Harvard University. Illustrated. (December)
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
