Fairy Tale Retellings

NotATameLion

NotATameLion

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I hope this goes here...Does anyone else love books where the authors retell fairy tales, or just expand them?

I'm talking about books by people like Gail Carson Levine, Shannon Hale, and Robin McKinley. I love stories like these, because the original fairy tales are usually so short and basic. I like to know what else could happen. :p

I love everything by Gail Carson Levine, especially "Ella Enchanted." The other day, I read "Fairest," which was also very good. It's based loosely on the story of Snow White, except with a big twist..."Snow White" isn't pretty. I've read "The Goose Girl," "Enna Burning," and "Book of a Thousand Days" by Shannon Hale, but "The Goose Girl" is my favorite. I've read a few of Robin McKinley's books, but the only one I really loved was "Beauty." I've always loved the Beauty and the Beast story, and "Beauty" was so sweet and romantic. :p

So does anyone like books based on fairy tales or books by those authors?
 
I know what you're talking about, and I do enjoy those sorts of stories. There was one I read once, but I have no idea what it was about or who wrote it. But I remember reading it and thinking "this is so cool!" ...
Arr! This is going to drive me crazy now. :p
 
Have you ever read The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley, NotaTameLion? It isn't from a fairytale, but I think it is McKinley's best work.

I loved Sleeping Ugly by Jane Yolen as a little girl. Still do actually :rolleyes:
 
Ella Enchanted...but just the book, the movie stinks
Beauty...my absolute FAVORITE...especially the end ::faints::

Gail Carson Levine is a genius. I love her retellings...Especially the Two Sisters and the collections with the story about the glass pyramid, the girl with the gems when she speaks...

Now I have to read them all again. Saved from possible future boredom again, yay! :D
 
Miss.SunFlower said:
I hate the movie Ella enchanted because it held on to NOTHING of the book, except the characters and Ella's curse...
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And barely THAT! I adored the way Ella broke her enchantment in the book and it was completely RUINED in the movie with the whole knife scene. Ugh. What they did to EE was FAR worse than anything done to PC. That dance scene at the end was SOOOOOOOOO cheesy...And NO sliding down the banister. sigh. :mad:
 
Wow, I have never read any of these, but now I have to because of what y'all said. And because Elentari is my soul sister, I know I will love the books.

I read one by ... I want to say Michael Crichton, but that sounds wrong. Anyway, it wasn't a fairy tale, it was a re-telling of the Beowulf myth, but from the point of view of some Arab fellow who had been pressed into Beowulf's service after Beowulf did a favor for his king. He was like a stereotypical bean-counter/accountant type, and he did not want to be on adventure. It was weird and comical the way he told the story. I think it was called Eaters of the Dead. Also, I liked the film O Brother Whereart Thou, which was like an Appalachian version of the Oddesy. It was amusing, and good music.
 
It was Crichton, inkspot. I've never read it but I remember my dad reading it when I was younger, screening it to see if I would be allowed to. I wasn't but he liked it. :p
 
Book Titles mentioned in my previous thread :)

The Two Princesses of Bamarre--the shy sister must go on a dangerous quest to save her braver sister who lies ill on the verge of death. Totally amazing book.

The Princess Tales, Volumes 1 and 2--Volume 1 includes "The Fairy's Mistake" (the one with the gems), "The Princess Test" (The Princess and the Pea, only better), and "Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep" (I do believe Sonora is not as beautiful as Aurora of the same fate ;)).

Volume 2 includes "Cinderellis and the Glass Hill", "For Biddle's Sake" (Rapunzel with a fairy who turns things into toads, so there is some Frog Prince(cess) going on too), and "The Fairy's Return" (The Princess Who Never Laughed and some others).

The fun thing about the Princess Tales is they aren't direct. More than 1 fairy tale is interwoven with the main one, so you really have no idea what is going to happen next, the princess or prince is not always beautiful, most have incredibly weird or simply "normal" habits, and the "witches" are simply fairies who have bad tempers and often do things they immediately regret, but can't always undo without a lot of work by other people. :)

I'm going to go read now. ;)
 
I've never read any books like that,but I have seen a movie-Rigoletto.
Its "Beauty and the Beast" with a few very unexpected twists,and really good.:D
 
If any of you geek out about fairytales as badly as I do, you might enjoy The Classic Fairytales by Maria Tatar. It is a fascinating book, and covers Cinderella, Snow White, and a few others - it has essays on how they have changed over time and then gives the Grimm or Perrault versions we are familiar with and the story from several other cultures. It is not a book intended for children, though, since it does discuss the violence in some of the stories that is not included in most children's books today.
 
Kells said:
If any of you geek out about fairytales as badly as I do, you might enjoy The Classic Fairytales by Maria Tatar. It is a fascinating book, and covers Cinderella, Snow White, and a few others - it has essays on how they have changed over time and then gives the Grimm or Perrault versions we are familiar with and the story from several other cultures. It is not a book intended for children, though, since it does discuss the violence in some of the stories that is not included in most children's books today.
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Like the fact that in the original Grimm version of Cinderella the stepsisters cut their heels and toes to get their feet into the glass slipper? :eek: Yeah, I learned that it middle school. Ick.
 
^ Yes, that creeped me out so much as a kid! And Snow White's stepmother/mother with the iron shoes!

I also remember the first time I read The Little Mermaid. My parents had never read it, only knew the Disney movie, so they didn't know I would be upset by it, but I was sobbing. I was too young to understand the story, I guess.
 
Kells said:
^ Yes, that creeped me out so much as a kid! And Snow White's stepmother/mother with the iron shoes!

I also remember the first time I read The Little Mermaid. My parents had never read it, only knew the Disney movie, so they didn't know I would be upset by it, but I was sobbing. I was too young to understand the story, I guess.
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Oh! I read a version of the Little Mermaid in a bookstore once and nearly cried when the prince _actually_married_someone_else_. ::gasp::

It was SOOOOOOOOO sad....:(
 
I work in a bookstore now. Whenever I see parents with young kids pick up a copy of Hans Cristian Anderson's fairytales, I warn them to read them with their kids. :rolleyes:


I found one version of Snow White a while back that I love. I think it was Irish or Scottish - it starts out with Snow White's father still alive. His wife if jealous of her beauty though and orders him to kill her. Instead, he sends her to be married to a king far away. So the queen finds out, and goes to kill her.
The servants lock Snow White away, but the queen comes to the door and asks her to at least put her finger out through the keyhole so she can kiss her hand. Snow White does this and is stabbed by a poisoned thorn and collapses. The king returns to find Snow White dead, and has her placed in a room in the tower of the castle because he cannot bear to bury her.
After a while he remarries and he has to leave the castle one day, so he leaves the keys with his wife, telling her she can go in any room but to leave the tower alone. She is curious and goes to look, and finds a woman who just seems to be sleeping. She spots the small thorn and pulls it out of her hand, waking up Snow White.
The king returns and the second wife asks what could make him happy, since he always seems so heartbroken. He responds that only having Snow White back could, and ta-da - the second wife has a surprise. So they live happily for a while - the king finds the second wife a good husband and place in court - but the wicked queen soon learns that Snow White lives and comes to kill her again. They get word that she is coming, so the second wife accompanies Snow White to meet the queen at the shore. The queen has a chalice full of poison that she wants to offer as a gift to Snow White, but the second queen steps in and says that it is customary in their land to sample anything you offer to eat or drink first. The queen raises their chalice to her lips, pretending to drink, but the second wife pushes the bottom of the chalice up, making the queen drink her own poison.

It is a strange story, but I loved this second wife. Especially with how much I hate the song "Someday My Prince Will Come."
 
All these books sound very good. I will have to look at the library, or if I get some money, at Amazon. Sweet.
 
Elentari said:
Oh! I read a version of the Little Mermaid in a bookstore once and nearly cried when the prince _actually_married_someone_else_. ::gasp::

It was SOOOOOOOOO sad....:(
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And then she kills herself..:eek:
I HATE Hans Christian Anderson's stories.Thank goodness somebody had the sense to rewrite them and make them "happily ever after".:D

I found a live-action version of Beauty and the Beast on Amazon the other day.Its from the 80s.Anyone seen it,and is it any good?:)
 
DaydreamBeliever said:
And then she kills herself..:eek:
I HATE Hans Christian Anderson's stories.Thank goodness somebody had the sense to rewrite them and make them "happily ever after".:D

I found a live-action version of Beauty and the Beast on Amazon the other day.Its from the 80s.Anyone seen it,and is it any good?:)
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Eh. I wasn't too thrilled with it. It seemed incredibly "dark", though it did give the B&TB idea a different twist. You may like it, I don't know.
 
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