Fairy tales, often said to be ''timeless'' and fundamentally ''oral, '' have a long written history. However, argues Elizabeth Wanning Harries in this provocative book, a vital part of this history has fallen by the wayside. The short, subtly didactic fairy tales of Charles Perrault and the Grimms have determined our notions about what fairy tales should be like. Harries argues that alongside these ''compact'' tales there exists another, ''complex'' tradition: tales written in France by the conteuses (storytelling women) in the 1690s and the late-twentieth-century tales by women writers...
Fairy tales, often said to be ''timeless'' and fundamentally ''oral, '' have a long written history. However, argues Elizabeth Wanning Harries in t...
