Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 13, 2010

Kelly Jo rated it:

I was very disappointed with this book. Gould upholds the patriarchal view of womanhood by insisting, with fairy tale examples, how women are governed by their bodies. A woman cannot escape this fate, must accept it, have babies, work tirelessly and without complaint in the home, and end up a jealous old woman. Seriously, this is the most twisted and irritating book I've read about both fairy tales and womanhood.

Let me state my case by citing some examples of her "revelations" More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 08, 2007

Elizabeth rated it:

It's an interesting read connecting popular themes in fairy tales with the conflicts women deal with at varying stages of a woman's life. I felt some of her claims of symbolism were a bit of a stretch, and the general feel was that women are hopelessly bound to urges and cultural expectations beyond their control. There were a couple of great passages that rang true to common frustrations, but I felt the analysis of the solution offered in the fairy tales was sketchy and incomplete and ultimat More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 18, 2010

Lisa rated it:

I both love and hate this book.
I hate it because it focuses so much on the idea that biology is destiny. Then I find myself trying to defend this in that many fairy tales (ok almost all of them) were written when this wasn't even up for debate. But part of me longs for a progressive stance on fairy tales. A stance that includes queer and transfolk because part of me wants to believe with all my heart that we don't need to throw out everything about our current culture, we just need to modi More...

0 comments like

May 27, 2009

Helynne rated it:

This is such an interesting study (although it sometimes does get a little too Freudian for my taste; more on that later) about the psychology behind some well-known fairy tales and how they typify dilemmas and choices that have faced women for centuries. Author Joan Gould designates three phases of a woman's life--the maiden, the mother and the crone--that are analyzed by various tales. One of the chapters, entitled "Cinderella: Surviving Adolescence" states that all of us women a More...

0 comments like

May 26, 2011

Teresa rated it:

I'll never quite look at the story of Cinderella the same way again and that's a good thing. This work is brilliant! Nothing less than a woman-centered response to Joseph Campbell's A Hero's Journey. Joan Gould's efforts to hunt down the traditional versions of the fairy tales she analyzes (rather than relying on the Disney versions we're more familiar with) and her subsequent analysis of their themes and subtexts is illuminating to say the least.

Without giving anything away, Gould de More...

0 comments like

Nov 05, 2007

Tina rated it:

no matter how many times I read this book, I'm always picking up something new. It's the kind of book that can be opened at any point & read & enjoyed

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 27, 2009

Phair rated it:

Very interesting and full of ideas (I took 4pp of notes in my journal). Author has annoying habit of interjecting her own life story in illustration of some points that I found jarring & even a tad whining and/or grandstanding in tone. Some bits dragged & felt a little tedious and she seemed to lose focus toward the end and turn more toward illustrating her personal agenda rather than explaining the fairy tale/ folklore connections. [I never realized that The African Queen is essentially Beaut More...

0 comments like

Sep 24, 2009

Emilie rated it:

this book really made me very grumpy. its superficial and oversimplified and hypocritical and filled with the kind of double messages that make me feel like someone is tying knots in my brain.
i expected to like it, i like interpretations of fairy tales, im interested in transformations and im interested in womens issues.

it is only about the transformations of women, if you consider women to be a homogenous category according only to some kind of biological determinism (determi More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2008

Dayna rated it:

This book was not quite what I was expecting. I guess I thought it would be more of a scholarly work, with lots of references and facts. It has some, but mostly it reads like a collection of Gould's personal opinions ... as influenced by her experiences as a mid-century woman. I was a bit disappointed by that. Beyond that, Gould's writing is nice, almost lyrical. Some of her theorizing was interesting, and I thought she made some good points. But a lot of it was totally subjective to your point More...

0 comments like

Nov 22, 2008

Samantha rated it:

This book was really interesting because it talked about many characters that are from well-known fairytales. This book really examined the way the women characters are portrayed in society. For example, Cinderella is a character that is examined very closesly in the book.

I remember reading stories like this when I was little, but I never really thought about the "stereotypical" woman character. She is the helpless character who needs to be rescued by her prince. Now, a More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 02, 2008

Dharma rated it:

Just starting it but it seems rather trite, a bit of reaching going on in the analysis but I'll keep going just to see what else might be here.

This book seems filled with psychobabble and really reaching when trying to apply feminism to these fables. Last night I read the only thing that I really like. Of course now I can't remember what the hell it was because I'm so bloody tired! But it was the first thing that felt like it spoke to me.

Later on it the book redeems its More...

0 comments like

Jul 15, 2009

Lia rated it:

Gould makes some good points in this book, but the approach is too psychoanalytic for my taste. I skipped most of the "maiden" chapters, and read about half of the "matron" and "crone" chapters. She has done good research and is often insightful. But I found myself resisting her "this is what it means" sort of tone.

0 comments like

Aug 15, 2009

Chara added it

I adore this book. I loved learning more about the analysis of the fairy tales themselves, but Gould's analysis of a woman's life, was far more interesting and informative. This book should be requited reading in high schools.

0 comments like

Mar 26, 2011

Alicia rated it:

Great book for women of all ages to read. Sometimes I wasn't sure how the author connected some dots, but very enriching book. It combines fairy tales with psychology and female development.

0 comments like

Apr 08, 2009

Andrea rated it:

This is a really interesting study of fairy tales and (like the title says) what they reveal about women. It's not a perfect book, but I was expecting this to say how fairy tales are crap and help our society keep women down, but it's quite the opposite. Who knew that fairy tales could be about womens' transformations into decisive, independent beings? I learned that my knowledge about fairy tales is based on Walt Disney movies, and those aren't the good fairy tales. The dark, creepy "r More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 29, 2011

Bea rated it:

okay this was a labor of love, I seriously wanted to finish this book but found the overwhelming referrences to a woman's only desire (conscious or unconscious) being to attract a mate and spawn children to be a bit too much. There are gems in this book - personally really identified with the sleeping beauty comparisions - but the authors opinion and personal interpretations are sometimes too hard to swallow and it brings the whole book down. I'd still recommend reading this book if - like mysel More...

0 comments like

Jan 18, 2009

Erica is currently reading it

Got it from the book closet at work. It should get me back into reading about women's issues, which I haven't been doing in years.

0 comments like

Dec 23, 2010

Mike rated it:

very interesting, well written

0 comments like

Aug 10, 2008

MichelleMarie rated it:

This made for interesting discussion, I thought. There were many things she hit on that I found intriguing and she had a great way of writing it, but probably more of her thoughts I disagreed with.
I thought the way she ended it all may it worth reading for me. Actually I thought that at the end of every chapter. She would always close with something that tied it all up and very thought provoking.
I still love the cover of the book almost more than any other I have ever seen!

0 comments like

Jul 08, 2011

Kipahni rated it:

The way that gould writes keeps the reader interested. She has a very good way of telling tales and there are some quotable aspects and that is why I gave this book a three.
However, She comes off as over generalizing everything and an authority on Fairy Tales as well as being way to freudian and negative about the stages of a womans life.

I know that the Fairy Tales of old were somewhat darker and perhaps more sexual but I would not take it as far as Ms. Gould did.

3 comments like

May 07, 2008

Ilze rated it:

Fairy tales are stories we all know about, but how much have we thought about them? Joan Gould must’ve thought about them for years and it shows in this detailed study of several fairy tales, taking a woman from maiden to matron to crone (and eventual death). It’s not the kind of book you can give an immediate impression of. On the contrary, you have to read and page slowly and think about the words as you go. If it was a picture, I would frame it!

0 comments like

May 24, 2009

Krista rated it:

Lots of symbolism, especially of the "maiden-mother-crone" variety. Wish I knew more about Jungian psychology--probably would have gotten more out of this book.

0 comments like

Sep 25, 2007

Jeannine rated it:

Weird - this wasn't really a book of criticism, I would almost label it under self-help - but a really fun, fairy-tale-based investigation of how the symbols in fairy tales can help women solve their problems. It wasn't what I expected, not terribly intellectual, but I enjoyed the author's fresh take.

0 comments like

Jun 18, 2008

Renee rated it:

I actually missed my plane back to the United States from Scotland reading this (totally didn't hear the "last call" message and didn't know I was at the wrong gate). At any rate, it is very engrossing. Only three stars because it doesn't explore as many fairy tales as I would have liked.

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2008

Kitsuchi rated it:

Is quite interesting in its discussion of the fairy tales, but irritating in saying woman=mother, and then I was tempted to throw it across the room when the author suggested that people with depression were somehow to blame for it. Would be better with less of the author's attitude.

3 comments like

Sep 08, 2010

Alice rated it:

I enjoyed reading this book, it had a lot of interesting ideas that I hadn't really given much thought to before. However, the book really should have been about 1/3 the length. There is a lot of repetition.

0 comments like

Jul 26, 2008

Klucky rated it:

This book is pretty darn good if you're into both children's fantasy and gender. It flows nicely and has very interesting viewpoints. It created a jumping point for some of my own analyses on various media.

0 comments like

Jun 29, 2010

Genevieve rated it:

This book wasn't worth finishing in my opinion. I found the connections and metaphors rote, infantile and hazily concocted at best. Perhaps my expectations for this book were too high. Very disappointing.

0 comments like

Nov 25, 2007

Tina rated it:

this is the kind of book you can dip into at any point, read a bit & then come back to. A really interesting take on all the fairy tales we grew up with.

0 comments like

Dec 31, 2009

Kelly marked it as to-read

got this for my 30th bday from Dani and will be getting to it soon - should be interesting as my daughter is full on in the princess phase...

0 comments like

reviews