Lewis Seifert

A collection of fairy tales written during the Third Republic (1870-1940) in the Decadent tradition, essentially a reaction movement to the social changes at the end of the nineteenth century and the larger trends of modernization. However, whether you're reading the tales for their historical value in context or just picking them up as a lover of fairy tales, these are a fascinating bunch. Whether it's a version of Red Riding Hood where she tricks the wolf into eating her grandmother so that he'll have to face the police, a recounting of Bluebeard that paints him as a really decent guy who was the victim of his last wife's falsehoods, or a version of Cinderella where the prince has an intense shoe fetish there are plenty of fascinating twists on familiar tales. As a former English major, I did wish there had been more annotations on each of the individual stories in addition to the general introduction. If you're just interested in exploring fairy tale retellings, this is an excellent collection to explore.… (meer)