Long Ago and Far Away — 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.