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125th out of 919 books
—
5,214 voters
Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer
by
Tanith Lee
How would it be if Snow White were the real villain & the wicked queen just a sadly maligned innocent? What if awakening the Sleeping Beauty should be the mistake of a lifetime--of several lifetimes? What if the famous folk tales were retold with an eye to more horrific possibilities?
Only Tanith Lee could do justice to it. In RED AS BLOOD, she displays her soaring ima...more
Only Tanith Lee could do justice to it. In RED AS BLOOD, she displays her soaring ima...more
Paperback, 208 pages
Published
January 3rd 1983
by DAW
(first published 1983)
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Apr 21, 2009
Werner
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of speculative fiction
Shelves:
fantasy,
books-i-own
The common thread binding the nine stories (five previously published in various magazines) of this collection is that they're all re-imagined fairy tales, and all of them are of high literary quality; but otherwise they exhibit a wide variety. Lee wasn't well-served by the jacket copy, or by the above description, both of which tend to sensationalize these stories, under-stress their emotional complexity, and paint an exaggerated image of grimness. Only two of the tales could justly be called "...more
The last thing I read by Tanith Lee was an Arthurian short story in a Merlin story collection, and hearing this audiobook version of her story Red As Blood was a very different experience.
After reading her tale of Merlin, which I loved, I immediately went looking for more of her work, but having heard this, it left me disappointed.
I've always loved re-imaginings of well-known fairy tales, such as Gregory Maguire's books for instance, but this feels less like a re-imagining than just plain editin...more
After reading her tale of Merlin, which I loved, I immediately went looking for more of her work, but having heard this, it left me disappointed.
I've always loved re-imaginings of well-known fairy tales, such as Gregory Maguire's books for instance, but this feels less like a re-imagining than just plain editin...more
Inverse, re-arranged, and re-told fairy tales are a dime a dozen these days, but few do it with such dark glamour as Tanith Lee. Taking classic fairy tales, Lee inverts the depiction of good and evil in their classic Grimm counterparts. The Wicked Step-Mother is a benevolent witch queen attempting to deal with the plague of her demonic daughter. The Paid Piper is an ancient and primitive God of the Wood. The Prince is sometimes the devil, and sometimes he's the Christ Savior. Lee's lush descript...more
This is a tasty little collection of short stories, most of which are a lot more complex than I was expecting. Okay, the Cinderella re-interpretation was about as shallow as the back cover suggested, (She's the poor, ash-covered child with two step-sisters. Only she's EVIL. And she and her mother worship SATAN. Oh it's true...) but the rest were juuust enough off-kilter from the source material to keep me guessing about where Lee was going with it. I'm not at all sure what was going on in "Thorn...more
I can't resist fairy tale retellings- and this one is dark, juicy, and deep. The way fairy tales were meant to be told.
The tales covered and Lee's titles:
1. The Pied Piper/The Paid Piper
2. Snow White/Red as Blood
3. Rapunzel/The Golden Rope
4. The Frog Prince/The Princess and her Future
5. Sleeping Beauty/Thorns
6. Cinderella/ When the Clock Strikes
7. Little Red Riding Hood/ Wolfland
8. Black as Ink/ Swan Lake
9. Beauty and the Beast/Beauty
I really admired how how Lee used chronology in setting thes...more
Oh my. That was *fantastic*. My favourite genre, riffs off of well-known fairy tales. Dark and twisted new takes on old stories. Lovely. Absolutely lovely. I do wonder what Black as Ink is supposed to be, though. Wikipedia says The White Duck, which is ridiculous. It has not even a nodding acquaintance with The White Duck. With the swans I'd think it was The Swan Princess, but bits of it made me think of Giselle... though Giselle isn't well-known enough for that kind of thing, generally. For tha...more
Tanith Lee writes wonderfully lyrical horror stories that sound like fairy tales, so it's only appropriate that she should rewrite some of the old standard. This book contains When the Clock Strikes, a retelling of Cinderella which is worth the price of admission alone, and The Princess and her Future , a heartwarming tale about a princess who marries a handsome prince who promises that "...I will love you for the rest of your life." He keeps his word.
While Tanith Lee's novels can be a little...more
While Tanith Lee's novels can be a little...more
Jan 19, 2010
Kathy
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fairytales-and-retellings,
short-stories
The edition of this book I got from the library says this is a young adult book. In no way would I consider this book appropriate for anyone under the age of 14 and that's only if they're a mature 14. There's not a lot of explicit content I guess, but it's very, very dark in subject matter including mentions of black magic and satanism.
That being said, every story in here was completely original and most of them were so twisted from the original there was little connecting the tale to the origin...more
That being said, every story in here was completely original and most of them were so twisted from the original there was little connecting the tale to the origin...more
I wanted this book for years and years, because I just adore Tanith Lee and because I have an affinity for fairy tales.. and I liked White As Snow so much! However since this book was so difficult to find it just sat on my to-read list for years.. until I got sick of not having it for my very own and paid way too much for it and it arrived and I read the whole thing in about a day.
Well I read the first two stories and was just disappointed. They were lovely, Romantic, kinda delicious, but ultima...more
Well I read the first two stories and was just disappointed. They were lovely, Romantic, kinda delicious, but ultima...more
i feel like i need to say something about this book, because it's just amazing. it's a collection of 9 stories retelling the known fairy tales but taking them in a complete different direction. it's been a while since i read it, so probably i am forgetting some details but i don't think it makes any difference,as i am not gonna go into the plots, just my feelings about each story in general.
maybe some spoilers...
So, here we go: the first story 'paid piper' was the one i liked best. not because o...more
maybe some spoilers...
So, here we go: the first story 'paid piper' was the one i liked best. not because o...more
For the last couple of years I have been focusing on including more short fiction in my reading routine. Likewise, I have been trying to go back to reading more fantasy and science fiction, two genres I devoured in my teens and early twenties but have gotten away from in recent years. Red as Blood by Tanith Lee fits both categories as it's a collection of retold fairy tales, each one with a dark twist.
The stories are based on the Grimm brothers' tales but given a feminist focus. The Grimm storie...more
The stories are based on the Grimm brothers' tales but given a feminist focus. The Grimm storie...more
An addiction you say? Yes, I may have an addiction to Tanith Lee’s short stories. Especially since I started this one before I’d finished Dreams of Dark and Light, so it was all Tanith Lee, all the time. This collection of stories is based partly on fairy tales that we know and love, with new stories mixed in, all with Lee’s twist of the dark and the macabre.
I had to hunt this one down after the Cinderella story was included in a college anthology of Children's Lit. The stories are so rich and vivid you can practically taste them. Lee's version of 'The Frog Prince' is particularly remarkable and a little terrifying at the end. Well worse the hassle it took me to get my hands on a copy.
On the one hand, this was retellings of fairy tales. On the other, it came across as preachy, Christianized versions of classics that added nothing to the stories.
There were a few stories that escaped this trap, but the best of these offerings were the last and second to last in the collection, and I was only reading at that point so I'd have a reason to justify a two-star rating. Indeed, had the last two stories set the tone of the collection, it would've earned a much higher rating.
But, no. Wo...more
There were a few stories that escaped this trap, but the best of these offerings were the last and second to last in the collection, and I was only reading at that point so I'd have a reason to justify a two-star rating. Indeed, had the last two stories set the tone of the collection, it would've earned a much higher rating.
But, no. Wo...more
I adore Tanith Lee. She sees the world so strangely, captures it in turns of phrase stranger still. It is all terribly, terribly beautiful. I can't believe certain of the short stories in this collection haven't been turned into films yet.
My favorite was definitely 'Beauty' - unlike the other short stories here its sci-fi rather than fantasy.
Lee takes the major fairy tales and dumps them on their heads by playing out the tales in a series of opposites.
Lee takes the major fairy tales and dumps them on their heads by playing out the tales in a series of opposites.
Pretty standard Tanith Lee fare, felt a bit old actually... maybe it's because I've read so much of her work that the patterns start to become obvious, but the 'refreshing' take on fairy tales usually felt a bit forced.
Still, it had the atmosphere I love so much about her books and nowhere did it make me feel bored enough to put it away.
A fairly rewarding read.
Still, it had the atmosphere I love so much about her books and nowhere did it make me feel bored enough to put it away.
A fairly rewarding read.
This was a wonderful book. I am generally *not* a fan of short stories. I like stories that with lots of character development and there isn't time for that in short stories. Maybe this collection was improved by already "knowing" the stories, but I don't think that's the only reason. They were definitely not for kids and one or two were rather disturbing, but riveting all the same. I would only say that one had any real innuendo, but the themes were adult (or, at least, young adult).
I read a co...more
I read a co...more
Most of the first stories were a little too dark (satanic) for my interest. However, making up for that was the retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It was really amazing and the ending was TOTALLY unexpected.
Retellings of classic fairytales. Lots of inversions of good and evil, twisted religious/mythological allegories, poetic imagery, and deliciously ambiguous gorgeousness. A re-read for me.
I'm pretty sure I read this a long time ago, but it was a good read - love the creepy and unusual takes on well-known fairy tales.
Godliness is next to more Godliness, apparently. This collection of fairy tale re-imaginings could have been good--a lot of her ideas are excellent and I'd love to see them in the hands of a better writer--but I only got through about half the stories in this collection. And of those six or so, five were varying degrees of allegory, usually of the "wicked person worships SATAN and GOD won't save you then." A little too much in the Christian tradition for me, particularly when the stories were se...more
The high rating for this is for the story of Beauty and the Beast- probably my favorite retelling of the tale.
My copy is tattered and torn but Lee is still able to make my skin crawl every time I read these stories!
Creepy, weird and in the case of Black as Ink, utterly unconnected to any fairy tsle, as far as I can tell.
myths and magic , lee has a unique style, if you like Angela carter and vampires, you will love her.
Think that I read this first when I was still in high school.
Where fairy tales were originally told as morality tales, Disney has taken fairy tales and filled them with bright colors and singing wildlife. Then Tanith Lee comes along and not only brings the dark adult view back but makes some of the stories even creepier and often darkly twisted. And blurs lines of "wicked" stepmothers, princes who "save" sleeping beauties, and the big bad wolf.
It may have also been the reason I wrote a paper i...more
Where fairy tales were originally told as morality tales, Disney has taken fairy tales and filled them with bright colors and singing wildlife. Then Tanith Lee comes along and not only brings the dark adult view back but makes some of the stories even creepier and often darkly twisted. And blurs lines of "wicked" stepmothers, princes who "save" sleeping beauties, and the big bad wolf.
It may have also been the reason I wrote a paper i...more
great stories - loved red as blood - great take on Snow White
Jun 26, 2012
Craig
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fantasy,
short-stories
By no means horrible just unnecessary. Original Grimm's tales are better.
Short stories from the master of the macabre, Tanith Lee. A favorite.
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Tanith Lee is a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She is the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She has also written four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7."
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a...more
More about Tanith Lee...
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a...more
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Now, you see, "Paid Piper" is my favorite in the en...more
May 01, 2009 09:54am
May 01, 2009 04:54pm