In one of the most stratling literary discoveries of recent years, Jack Zipes has uncovered this neglected treasuretrove of Sicilian folk and fairy tales. Like the Grimm brothers before her, Laura Gonzenbach, a talented Swiss-German born in Sicily, set out to gether up the tales told and retold among the peasants. Gonzenbach collected wonderful stories, some on subjects that readers will know from the Grimms or Perrault, some entirely new, and published them in German. her early death and the destruction of her papers in the Messina earthquake of 1908 only add to the mystery behind her...

The 2005 bicentenary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth is an opportunity to re-evaluate the achievement of one of the great figures of the fairy tale and storytelling tradition, a beloved writer famous for The Snow Queen and The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and The Red Shoes and many other now classic tales. Jack Zipes broadens our understanding of Andersen by exploring the relation of the Danish writer's work to the development of literature and of the fairy tale in particular. Based on thirty-five years of researching and writing on Andersen, this new book is a welcome reconsideration...