Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 124

New Book: Tales of the German Imagination from the Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann

Tales of the German Imagination from the Brothers Grimm to Ingeborg Bachmann (Penguin Classics) edited and translated by Peter Wortsman was released in late February. Interesting choice of Grimms tales in the table of contents....

Book description:

'It was a very momentous day, the day on which I was to be slaughtered'

Bringing together tales of melancholy and madness, nightmare and fantasy, this is a new collection of the most haunting German stories from the past 200 years. Ranging from the Romantics of the early nineteenth century to works of contemporary fiction, it includes Hoffmann's hallucinatory portrait of terror and insanity 'The Sandman'; Chamisso's influential black masterpiece 'Peter Schlemiel', where a man barters his own shadow; Kafka's chilling, disturbing satire 'In the Penal Colony'; the Dadaist surrealism of Kurt Schwitters' 'The Onion'; and Bachmann's modern fairy tale 'The Secrets of the Princess of Kagran'. Macabre, dreamlike and expressing deep unconscious fears, these stories are also spiked with unsettling humour, showing stylistic daring as well as giving insight into the darkest recesses of the human condition.

Peter Wortsman's powerful translations are accompanied by brief overviews of the lives of each author, and an introduction discussing the notion of 'angst' and the stories' place in the context of German history.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: 'Making Bones Sing'

TALES OF THE GERMAN IMAGINATION

Part One

The Singing Bone The Brothers Grimm

Hansel and Gretel The Brothers Grimm

The Children of Hameln The Brothers Grimm

The Sandman E.T.A. Hoggmann

Rune Mountain Ludwig Tieck

St Cecilia or the Power of Music Heinrich von Kleist

Peter Schlemiel Adelbert von Chamisso

The Marble Statue Josef von Eichendorff

Descent into the Mines Heinrich Heine


Part Two

My Gmunden Peter Altenberg

The Magic Egg Mynona (aka Salomo Friedlaender)

The Seamstress Rainer Maria Rilke

The Island of Eternal Life Georg Kaiser

In the Penal Colony Franz Kafka

The Kiss Robert Walser

The Blackbird Robert Musil

The Lunatic Georg Heym

A Conversation Concerning Legs Alfred Lichtenstein

The Onion Kurt Schwitters

A Raw Recruit Klabund (aka Alfred Henschkle)

The Time Saver Ignaz Wrobel (aka Kurt Tucholsky)

The Tattooed Portrait Egon Erwin Kisch


Part Three

The Experiment or the Victory of the Children Unica Zürn

The Dandelion

Shadowlight Paul Celan

The Secrets of the Princess of Kagran Ingeborg Bachmann

Conversation Jürg Laederach


The Tales and Their Authors

Acknowledgments

New Book: Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist

Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist by Jane Yolen (Author), Rebecca Kai Dotlich (Author), Matt Mahurin (Illustrator) was released a few days ago.

Book description:

What were all those fairy-tale characters thinking? Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich answer this question in paired poems, with sometimes startling results. The Princess claims all those mattresses kept her awake—not a silly pea—while the poor pea complains that the princess snores. One Snow White begs the witch to settle by the bay and throw that mirror away. Another boldly tells the mirror she “won’t be guided by a glass that’s so one-sided.” Grumbles from the Forest is a bewitching brew of voices—grumbling, pleading, bragging, reminiscing, confiding—that bubbles with magic and wonder. The spectacular paintings that tie the poems together are full of surprise and intrigue. This stunning collection includes end notes that briefly describe the tales and their history and an introduction that invites readers to imagine their own poems from unusual perspectives.

This review from Kirkus Reviews is one of the best I've read:

An intriguing idea becomes a thought-provoking collection of short poems from characters readers only thought they knew. Yolen and Dotlich have taken 15 well-known fairy tales ("Cinderella," "Snow White," "Jack and the Beanstalk," etc.) and written two short poems in various formats spoken from the point of view of a character. The Princess and the Pea each get a voice, and so do the Frog and the Princess. Tiny Thumbelina gets two tiny poems, a cinquain and a haiku. The frontmatter lists who wrote what, and a very brief summary of each tale is listed at the end. While short, these notes include tale variants, which is very nice indeed. The beginning poem, "Once," is by Yolen; and the closing, "Happily Ever After," is by Dotlich. While every poem is accessible, some are richer and darker than others. "Beauty and the Beast: An Anniversary" (Yolen) visits the couple in their old age and is wistful and touching; "Snide: An Afterthought" (Dotlich) is as the title states: "Ever after, I refused to call him / Rumpelstiltskin; / to me, he is a nasty little man." Mahurin's surreal images are layered with color, now matte, now iridescent, with exaggerated perspectives and dreamlike, occasionally nightmarish, elongated or oversized figures. The poets invite and may well entice readers to write their own fairy-tale poems. (Poetry/fairy tales. 5-9)

Here's images of the Table of Contents pages--some of the poems can also be previewed through Amazon's Look Inside the Book feature.



All of my knowledge of the book so far is from the preview--don't have a copy yet--but it was enough to see some of the beautiful illustrations like this one:


And to see that SurLaLune gets a shout out in the appendix. Thank you!

Cinderella's Enchanted Coach from The Franklin Mint

Cinderella's Enchanted Coach from The Franklin Mint. Found via Replacements.com. I really don't know anything else about it, such as year of release or what. It's pretty but I would hate dusting it! And, might I add, it's not Disney inspired. Always refreshing and seemingly more and more rare.

New Book: My Epic Fairy Tale Fail (My Very UnFairy Tale Life) by Anna Staniszewski

 
My Epic Fairy Tale Fail (My Very UnFairy Tale Life) by Anna Staniszewski is released today. It's the sequel to My Very UnFairy Tale Life. Sounds very light and frothy and a treat for fans of the first book.

Book description:

Jenny has finally accepted her life of magic and mayhem as savior of fairy tale kingdoms, but that doesn't mean the job's any easier. Her new mission is to travel to the Land of Tales to defeat an evil witch and complete three Impossible Tasks. Throw in some school friends, a bumbling knight, a rhyming troll, and a giant bird, and happily ever after starts looking far far away. But with her parents' fate on the line, this is one happy ending Jenny is determined to deliver.

Fairy Tale Rug

I'm in love with this "Pop Up Book rug designed by the Bob Foundation and sold on a Japanese website for 28,000 yen or about $296 (tax included.)" Found via My Modern Met. 
I love it and would love one in my office. How awesome that would be! Not sure where it came from before Bob Foundation sold it.


Oh well, at least I own this silver pendant which at least has the same sentiment. It's price was much more reasonable in comparison. (And yes, the engraving was extra, so it did cost more!) But I love it. And it's much easier to store. It's from James Avery and I have posted about it before. It was my celebratory reward when I sold my first 100 books.

Bargain Books: The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom and More

Amazon has a new The Big Deal with many great bargain books. The sale is through March 10th, but experience has taught me that some books disappear from the list once they meet some quota or other measure. So don't delay on books you really want!

My top pick so far--I'm still sorting through the categories--has been The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (The League of Princes) by Christopher Healy. I have needed to acquire my own copy since my paper copy went home at Christmas with an adoring niece who couldn't leave it behind. Despite her claim a few days earlier that she never rereads books anymore and that she had finished it. I was just privately amused and didn't point this out to her as I waved the book goodbye and returned the title to my personal acquisition list. She's ten, she's allowed to be contradictory just like the rest of us. Anyway, I just got to replace it for $1.99. Thank you!

And The Summer of Moonlight Secrets by Danette Haworth has such a beautiful cover--I want to be wherever that is. And I suspect the big reveal involves mermaids or selkies. Because they usually do. Although I could be wrong! The description promises myth and mystery, a delicious combination, yes?

There are some other favorites that aren't fairy tale connected, especially for me in the Big Deal: Children's Titles, like Betsy-Tacy (Betsy-Tacy Books) and even some fairy tale picture books--I like to have some as backup although I am still adamantly a paper book person when it comes to picture books.

$1.99 Bargain Ebooks: E. D. Baker and Helen Castor

Hello folks, I will get back to regular posting soon--the blog is not dying, I'm just BUSY--but here's a TODAY only bargain ebook, a recent release. Unlocking the Spell: A Tale of the Wide-Awake Princess (Tales of the Wide-Awake Princess) by E. D. Baker is $1.99 today only. And it was only released this past October. I heard Baker talk about it at the Southern Festival of Books a few weeks later and my admiration for her only grew.

And you want this one, because it's inspired by Snow White and Rose Red. How often does that happen? Not very. And the reviews for it are great. It's a companion book to The Wide-Awake Princess which also happens to be $1.99.

Book description for Unlocking the Spell:

Bears, princes, witches, dwarves, and other fanciful fairy tale creatures step out in this charming story about Annie and her sister Gwendolyn ... and Gwendolyn’s beloved prince, Beldegard the Bear. You see, Beldegard is only human when he’s near Annie, so Gwendolyn is desperate to find the evil dwarf who turned Beldegard into a bear in the first place, and reverse the terrible spell. But Annie has just traipsed all over the kingdom to free her sister from the Sleeping Beauty spell...will she want to set out on a magical quest once more? Or has she had enough of watching her sister gaze lovingly into Beldegard’s eyes?

With trademark humor and many delightful twists, E. D. Baker brings us back to a magical land that offers many layers of fun and fantasy.

And while we're here, talking about princesses and queens and all, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor is also $1.99 for a short time. Ha, when you see the recommendation blurb by Hilary Mantel who's managed to get herself from press this past week.

Book description:

“Helen Castor has an exhilarating narrative gift. . . . Readers will love this book, finding it wholly absorbing and rewarding.” —Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall

In the tradition of Antonia Fraser, David Starkey, and Alison Weir, prize-winning historian Helen Castor delivers a compelling, eye-opening examination of women and power in England, witnessed through the lives of six women who exercised power against all odds—and one who never got the chance. Exploring the narratives of the Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, Margaret of Anjou, and other “she-wolves,” as well as that of the Nine Days' Queen, Lady Jane Grey, Castor invokes a magisterial discussion of how much—and how little—has changed through the centuries.

Conference: Passion & Prohibition: A New Look at Old Tales From Oedipus to Cinderella

Conference Announcement! Haven't had one of these in a while.... Oh, there are times when I wish I were in the Northeast and not the South!



Passion & Prohibition: A New Look at Old Tales From Oedipus to Cinderella

When: 4/20/2013
Where: Yale Child Study Center
New Haven, Connecticut
United States
Contact: Rachel Bergeron (rachelbergeron1 at gmail.com)

DETAILS

Professor Maria Tatar, professor of Germanic Languages at Harvard and a leading international scholar on myth, folklore, and fairy tales will be presenting. She is speaking with Dr. Nancy Kulish, a psychoanalyst who has challenged the usefulness of the Oedipus myth to describe girls' development. From different (and similar) disciplinary perspectives, both scholars will deconstruct feminist and gendered elements of myth and fairy tales with a particular eye on passion and the prohibitions against it.

We are going where only children dare to tread.
Clinical work, like fairy tales, pulls us into the dark
heart of powerful emotional experiences. Potent
but forbidden feelings - jealous rage,
competitiveness, and desire - grip us. Children
dance with delight in the terror, transgression,
beauty and dazzle of fairy tales. Adults and
clinicians, however, often stop at the door of
‘grandma’s house’ and turn away. We will explore
the overlapping psychological edges of passion and
prohibition in fairy tales and in psychoanalysis.

To register for the symposium or to learn more about it, please go to http://www.westernnewengland.org/symposium/.

The Underground Kingdom at Tales of Faerie

Last week, Kristen at Tales of Faerie posted about Twelve Dancing Princesses Tales From Around the World with two posts, The Underground Kingdom: Part I and The Underground Kingdom: Part II.

In those entries, she proceeds to summarize and explain some of the unique elements of the Twelve Dancing Princesses type tales in the book. I enjoyed rereading these because I love the tale, loved researching and editing the book, and yet I have forgotten the nuances of many of the tales in the three years since I completed the book. Cinderella, Bluebeard, Mermaids, and Beauty and the Beast have overrun that portion of my brain's storage since that time. And yet, sometime this year, I plan to finally finish the Grateful Dead collection that was spawned from this book. I have an almost complete manuscript for it--I started it while working on this book, but I know the demand is small for such a lesser known tale, so the final edit remains undone. It has over 40 tales and several plays--that tale used to be rewritten and repeatedly reproduced on stage at least once a century. Either way, it will make a fun All Souls' Day/Samhain/Halloween release for 2013, yes?

But this post is about The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Kristin did such a great job that it makes me want to go back and reread my own book! I completed the book around the same time as the small surge in Twelve Dancing Princesses inspired novels were being published. This is the only collection I've worked on where an entire novel pretty much sprang into my head, too. Alas, it remains unwritten since I can only work two jobs a day. And Twelve Dancing Princesses Tales From Around the World was never promoted as well by me  since the week of its release I was violently ill and my brain went out of commission for months afterwards as a result of weeks of bouts with a high fever.

From the Tales of Faerie blog:

The Princesses are sometimes willing and sometimes under a spell; the land they travel to is usually an evil and dangerous place in most Western versions but even then there are exceptions. Either way the reader is generally excited to hear about the forbidden journey and the supernatural secrets that are revealed. In her introduction to the book, Heidi Anne Heiner speculates that since the Princesses generally don't want to be rescued, that may be part of the appeal of the tale. What do you think, readers? Do you have a particular favorite variant? Why do you like or not like this tale?

The morality in this tale still remains more ambiguous than many other tale types. Perhaps that is one reason why it fascinates so many writers and readers. Thanks, Kristin, for sharing the book so well. It really is a fascinating tale!

New Yorker Cartoon: Cinderella Business Woman by Warren Miller

Art.com has a new series of New Yorker cartoons with fairy tale inspirations available for order. I thought I would share a few over the next few days. This one is by Warren Miller. Published December 13, 1993. Fairy Godmother turns Cinderella into fashionable, business-suited woman with cellular phone and briefcase.

I think some of these also appear in Mother Goose on the Loose, which is out of print, but I haven't had the inclination to check. They are available individually from Art.com.