What has kept them alive over the centuries is exactly what keeps life pulsing with vitality and variety: anxieties, fears, desires, romance, passion, and love. Disseminated across a wide variety of historical and contemporary media ranging from opera and drama to cinema and advertising, they constitute a vital part of our storytelling capital. As Tatar shows, few of us are aware of how profoundly fairy tales have influenced our culture. Offering new translations of the non-English stories by the likes of Hans Christian Andersen, Brothers Grimm, or Charles Perrault, Tatar captures the rhythms of oral storytelling and, with an extraordinary collection of over 300 often rare, mostly four-color paintings and drawings by celebrated illustrators such as Gustave Dore, George Cruikshank, and Maxfield Parrish, she expands our literary and visual sensibilities. Gathering together twenty-five of our most cherished fairy tales, including enduring classics like 'Beauty and the Beast,' 'Jack and the Beanstalk,' ' ,' and 'Bluebead,' Tatar expertly guides readers through the stories, exploring their historical origins, their cultural complexities, and their psychological effects. Into the woods with Little Red Riding Hood, up the beanstalk with Jack, and down through the depths of the ocean with the Little Mermaid, this volume takes us through many of the familiar paths of our folkloric heritage.

The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales is a remarkable treasure trove, a work that celebrates the best-loved tales of childhood and presents them through the vision of Maria Tatar, a leading authority in the field of folklore and children's literature.

The Classic Fairy Tales by Maria Tatar