First published in 1934, “The Fairies Return” collects 14 modern versions of famous tales from the nursery bookshelf, all of them updated and rewritten for adults. In “Little Snow-White,” for instance, Lord Dunsany reimagines the wicked stepmother as an ambitious social climber. Her magic mirror has become a magic gramophone:
“Oh gramo, gramo, gramophone,
(Princeton Univ.) - ‘The Fairies Return: Or, New Tales for Old’ by Peter Davies and Maria Tatar.
Which of us is the fairest one?”
For a long time, the gramophone gives the usual answer to Lady Clink, but there comes a day when the record changes:
“Thou wert the fairest, Lady Clink,
But Blanche is fairer now, I think.”
In a rage, the stepmother sends for the family chauffeur and orders him to take little Blanche shopping and not bring her back. Huh? responds the confused driver, who is named Clutch. Lady Clink spells out her wishes:
“ ‘Do you know how many people are killed on the roads in a week? What’s one more dead body in London?’
“ ‘There’d be an inquest. . . .,’ he was beginning.
“ ‘Driver exonerated from all blame,’ snapped Lady Clink with finality.
“ ‘Very well, my lady,’ said Clutch.
“ ‘Ask her to step out for a moment while . . .’
“ ‘Leave it to me, my lady,’ he said.
“ ‘And by the way,’ said Lady Clink, ‘bring me her heart and her tongue.’ ”
And so pretty little Blanche is taken out in the Daimler to do a little shopping on Oxford Street.
I shouldn’t say any more about how Dunsany develops his version of the familiar plot, but the editor, Maria Tatar — one of our greatest authorities on the fairy tale — isn’t quite so scrupulous. Tatar’s long introduction to “The Fairies Return” is full of spoilers, as she methodically goes through each story, offering a precis of its action while providing brief critical analyses. All this material should have been reserved for an afterword.
When Peter Davies first compiled this anthology, he naturally asked prominent British writers of the day to contribute to it. So A.E. Coppard reimagines “Jack the Giant Killer,” E.M. Delafield modernizes “The Fisherman and His Wife,” and Eric Linklater adds an eighth voyage — upon a cruise ship — to “Sindbad the Sailor.” All the stories are, in fact, wonderfully accomplished, witty, satirical — and they make for perfect light entertainment. But who are these authors?
Most of them are now appreciated only by small coteries. Lady Eleanor Smith, who sets her heartbreaking version of “The Little Mermaid” in Canada and Hollywood, is now remembered chiefly for her weird tales (collected in “Satan’s Circus”). R.J. Yeatman and W.C. Sellar, who narrate “Big Claus and Little Claus” in tough-guy lingo, are famous for a single cult book: “1066 and All That.” E.O. Somerville, who takes on “Little Red Riding-Hood,” co-wrote “Some Experiences of an Irish R.M,” made into a TV series in the 1980s.
Tatar appends short biographical notes about each contributor, but these struck me — and I hate to sound so persnickety — as lackluster and perfunctory. Surely, one function of a book like this is to generate new interest in its half-forgotten authors? Tatar is a professor of German literature at Harvard, which suggests that British commercial fiction between World Wars I and II is hardly her forte. Yet Coppard is a highly original writer of ghost stories, Delafield’s “Diary of a Provincial Lady” remains a minor comic masterpiece, and Lord Dunsany isn’t just an author admired by Guillermo del Toro and Neil Gaiman: He is, in many ways, the pivotal figure in the history of modern fantasy.
Can modest golem and a mercurial jinni find love in Lower Manhattan?
1368827928000
A science writer for The Washington Post, Margaret Webb Pressler decided to unravel the mystery of her husband’s biology.
1368825487000
The harrowing story of a black man pressed into sexual slavery after the Revolutionary War.
1368742926000The books Washington has been reading.
1368722950000
Steven Nadler’s fascinating survey of Golden Age Dutch culture, Cartesian philosophy and art connoisseurship.
1368662393000A novel about the unusual friendship between a South African refugee and an American expatriate.
1368630487000
Egan's biography of American West photographer Edward Curtis garners $7,500 and a week at the summer program in New York State.
1368624811000
Things fall apart when a young girl is left alone in the house with her emotional cousin.
1368573677000
The author of ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ returns with a novella for the Royal Ballet in London.
1368571595000
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon races to solve a mystery based on Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”
1368504060000
The Irish poet will speak tonight at the Folger Library
1368477011000
Writer Thomas De Quincey must apprehend a murderer terrorizing London — or take the fall himself.
1368394543000The books Washington has been reading.
1368226868000
Author stuffs stale history lessons into his multi-generational journey through the City of Light.
1368136718000The Post Most: EntertainmentMost-viewed stories,videos, and galleries in the past two hours
Loading...
Comments