New Book: Long Ago and Far Away: Eight Traditional Fairy Tales

Eeep! I never posted this summer about Long Ago and Far Away: Eight Traditional Fairy Tales with an introduction by Marina Warner. It was released in June and I thought I posted but it was only ever in draft.

Book description:

Brand new translations of the earliest versions of best-known and most-loved fairy tales, with an introduction by renowned mythographer Marina Warner

Returning to some of the earliest written records of these stories, before the moralizing of the British Victorians and the sugarcoating of Walt Disney, unearths narratives that differ radically from those that children are told to this day. This collection contains brand new translations of "Beauty and the Beast," "Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella" in their original Pentamerone versions; the Grimms' "Hansel and Gretel;" Perrault's "Little Red Riding Hood;" and many others. Originally recorded orally and handed down through generations, early fairy tales were receptacles of sexual depravity (including incest, rape, and necrophilia) and murder. Marina Warner, one the finest of contemporary literary minds, explains in her introduction the reasons behind the tales' evolution from their original versions and the appeal they have today.

Now really, what more can be said? When a book description covers "sexual depravity (including incest, rape, and necrophilia) and murder" it just sells itself these days, doesn't it? Add this to my list with Grimm's Grimmest (which is out of print AGAIN!) and we're done with the horror seekers.

(And can I be just a little proud that the book recommendations from the book's product page mirror my Fairy Tale Nonfiction 2012 Listmania list? Yes, occasionally, I have a small impact because these were not grouped together previously. I've spent a year fleshing out that list! But then you readers look at all of these together and make it happen.)