The Classic Fairy Tales ed. by Maria Tatar (review)

The Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar, has been a staple in the fairy-tale classroom for nearly two decades. The first edition, published in 1999, has been used at the graduate and undergraduate levels as an introductory text to the field, and, despite the publication of several excellent fairy-tale handbooks in recent years, Tatar's text has remained a popular pedagogical text. The long-awaited second edition of The Classic Fairy Tales does not disappoint. Tatar has updated and expanded the text while keeping much of the structure and content that made the first edition so useful.

The book consists of an introduction, primary fairy-tale texts accompanied by brief introductions, a variety of secondary critical texts, and a selected bibliography. The introduction is both extremely readable and informative. Tatar weaves quotations from the likes of C. S. Lewis, Neil Gaiman, Vladimir Nabokov, Claude Lévi Strauss, and Angela Carter into her prose, creating a "kaleidoscopic" view of the fairy tale that encompasses "sparkling beauty, austere form, and visual power" (xii). Transformation and adaptation provide a through-line as Tatar emphasizes again and again the multiplicity and variation among tales. Writing against canon formation or the pursuit of a "pure" tale, Tatar instead notes that

the reverence brought by some readers to fairy tales mystifies these stories, making them appear to be a source of transcendent spiritual truth and authority. That kind of mystification fosters a hands-off attitude and conceals the fact that fairy tales are constantly shape-shifting, endlessly adaptable as they turn into different versions of themselves depending on the cultural surround.

(xvi)

Deftly explaining and entwining oral, literary, and mass media means of tale creation, Tatar delights in the "marvelous messiness of fairy-tale networks," acknowledging the shortcomings of traditional classification methodology when addressing adaptations and exploring questions of cataloging, history, and authenticity that have no simple answers (xxiii).

"The Texts of The Classic Fairy Tales" is, at 347 pages, the longest portion of the book and a considerable expansion on the previous edition. Delightfully, Tatar prefaces these primary texts with Neil Gaiman's poem "Instructions" (2001), a piece that features motifs from a wide array of stories and sets the stage for the curated collection that follows. The tales, which vary in form and style, and are drawn from oral and literary sources. Though the chosen texts are primarily Western European, there are also tales from China, Egypt, Japan, Russia, and other less commonly sourced countries. The structure is very similar to that of the first edition of The Classic Fairy Tales—the stories are grouped into sections, each prefaced by a brief introduction. Most sections are titled under famous fairy-tale names; there are sections called "Little Red Riding Hood," "Beauty and the Beast," "Snow White," "Sleeping Beauty," "Cinderella," and "Bluebeard." The "Sleeping Beauty" section is a new and welcome addition to this volume, whereas the others feature revised introductions and expanded story selections. The section formerly labeled "Hansel and Gretel" has been retitled as "Tricksters." This choice is a bit jarring, since it is the only section named for a motif or character type, but it does allow for a wider range of stories under its heading. The two remaining sections are named for authors: Hans Christian Andersen and Oscar Wilde. The selection of Wilde stories remains unchanged from the first edition, but the Andersen section now includes two additional tales: "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Nightingale." The vast majority of the primary texts are pre-twentieth-century, but a handful of twentieth- and twenty-first-century texts are scattered through the sections, including pieces by Angela Carter, Anne Sexton, and Gabriel Garcia Márquez.

The criticism portion of the book is thoughtfully chosen, containing accessible pieces that demonstrate the breadth of the field of fairy-tale studies. Many of the pieces from the last edition remain, including work by Jack Zipes, Donald Haase, and Tatar herself. Important new pieces from Cristina Bacchilega and...