Sunday 30 September 2012

Sunday September 30, 2012 Fairy Tales for Adults

Fairy Tales have been extremely popular lately. From the television series like Once Upon a Time and Grimm, movies like Snow White and the Huntsman, and the many teen books like Wildwood Dancing by Julie Marillier and Fairest by Gail Carson Levine, fairy tales are being reimagined time and time again. But what if you are an adult reader who wants to join in? While many of the novels written for teens are quite entertaining, the library has some titles that are written with an adult audience in mind.

 A great place to start is the Tor Fairy Tale series. These books are all edited by the same woman, Terri Windling. The Fairy Tale Series was conceived of by Windling and artist Thomas Cantry; they wanted their favourite writers to create new stories based off of the old tales. Modern audiences know the Victorian versions of the tales, which have been simplified and deemed suitable for children. Windling wanted to give fairy tales back to adults, and that’s what she did with this series. Each book is written by a different author so you are sure to find something you’ll like. The library has The Sun, the Moon and the Stars by Steven Brust, Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, and White as Snow by Tanith Lee. We also have Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia Wrede available through Overdrive.

If you don’t have time to read a whole novel, another option is the Snow White, Blood Red anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. These anthologies are similar to the Tor Fairy Tale Series in that they rework familiar fairy tales into darker (and sexier!) stories suitable for an adult audience.

If you’re looking for a lighter story, a good option is Mercedes Lackey’s Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms. In this series she retells fairy tales in exciting ways, often recombining several stories into one new tale. Lackey’s heroines are not the passive, helpless females that modern audiences know. Gone are the princesses waiting to be rescued; here are damsels who help save themselves. These books take place in the same world (the Five Hundred Kingdoms) but are only loosely tied together; characters from one book may make an appearance in later books but you don’t need to know what happened previously to enjoy whichever story in the series appeals to you. From Cinderella, the Snow Queen, Sleeping Beauty and even the Volsunga Saga, the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms are a fun romp through traditional tales from a variety of cultures.

For something completely different, you might want to try giving Neil Gaiman’s Stardust a read. Instead of being an old tale reimagined for a modern audience, Stardust is a new tale written in the delightful style of one from the 1800’s. This is the enchanting story of Tristan Thorn who goes into the world of fairy looking for a falling star after vowing to retrieve it to impress his love, Victoria. Stardust was originally released as a four-issue comic book series; if you’d like to read that, the library has the graphic novel. Stardust was also adapted as a movie a few years ago, so if you would prefer to watch it rather than read it you have that option as well. But I must warn you, while the movie is still enjoyable, its story is somewhat different from the prose.

So if you’re wanting to escape into a fairy tale but want something different from the children’s versions we are used to, come and check out some of the adult fairy tales here at the library.

Shauna Kosoris

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