The Classic Fairy Tales: Second Norton Critical Edition ed. by Maria Tatar (review)

Our fascination with fairy tales is never ending, and their foundational messages and meanings continue to speak to the human condition. Norton's Second Critical Edition of The Classic Fairy Tales, again edited by Maria Tatar, aims to show the flexibility and adaptability of these tales, their timeless nature, and our continuing wonder in regarding them.

Structuring this second edition in the same helpful format as the first, Tatar provides an introduction at the beginning of each chapter that focuses on a specific tale type, placing the tale in context and providing some background information. Following the introduction, she supplies the traditional version of each story, translating most of them herself from their original languages. Included are fairy tales from Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Giambattista Basile, and Joseph Jacobs. Although the book mostly focuses on the European fairy tale tradition, some chapters include tales from other world cultures. Also incorporated into each chapter along with the traditional versions are modern revisionings by authors well known for such work. For example, Angela Carter's "Tiger Bride" is included in the chapter on "Beauty and the Beast," Neil Gaiman's "Glass, Snow, and Apples" shows up in the discussion of "Snow White," and the chapter on the Bluebeard tale type contains Margaret Atwood's "Bluebeard's Egg." The fairy tale texts section of the book diverges slightly from that of the first edition in its inclusion of Sleeping Beauty tales. In addition, "Hansel and Gretel," to which the first edition had devoted an entire chapter, has been folded into a new chapter entitled "Tricksters." Also in this edition, as in the first, are chapters exploring the original fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen and Oscar Wilde.

The "Criticism" section at the end of the book updates and expands the scholarly discussion of the first edition. Encompassing several decades of fairy tale studies, from Ernst Bloch in the 1930s to discussions about the nature of fairy tales (among them Tatar's own) as recent as 2015, the critical section contains pieces from scholars such as Jack Zipes, Vladimir Propp, Marina Warner, and Cristina Bacchilega approaching the study of fairy tales from varied schools of thought, including psychological, feminist, and sociocultural perspectives.

Addressing the morphology and classification of fairy tales, another important change is the inclusion of Hans-Jörg Uther's 2004 update of the Antti Aarne-Stith Thompson Tale Type Index in which Uther seeks to expand and revise the Index's narrow focus on "a Eurocentric corpus that fails to include … Native American or African lore" (491). In another essay addressing the Aarne-Thompson classification system, Propp proposes a theory of folktale study "according to the functions of [a tale's] dramatis personae" (503). In Propp's "Morphology of the Folktale," he outlines what he believes are thirty-one functions common to all folktales, by which they can be identified.

The critical section of the book also includes compelling scholarly essays by feminist critics such as Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Karen E. Rowe, and Marina Warner. Rowe, in an excerpt from her piece "To Spin a Yarn: The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tale," examines the confluence of the traditional feminine arts—weaving, spinning, sewing—and storytelling. Beginning with Ovid's Philomela, she traces the female voice crucial to folklore and fairy tales.

Zipes and Jessica Tiffin tackle the influence of the Walt Disney Company on the public perception of fairy tales. In "Breaking the Disney Spell," Zipes addresses Disney's mass market appeal, claiming that it does damage to the fairy tale by creating "packaged … versions … through the merchandising of books, toys, clothing, and records" (434). By dissecting the Disney message, Zipes shows how the company's fairy tale films reinforce gender, class, and cultural stereotypes that promote the patriarchal structures of the past. Tiffin mentions Disney in the context of a broad discussion of fairy tale film adaptations.

In "Sex and Violence: The Hard Core of Fairy Tales," Tatar deals...