When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition

by Jack D. Zipes

For centuries fairy tales have been a powerful mode of passing cultural values onto our children, and for many these stories delight and haunt us from cradle to grave. But how have these stories become so powerful and why?

In When Dreams Came True, Jack Zipes explains the social life of the fairy tale, from the sixteenth century on into the twenty-first. Whether exploring Charles Perrault or the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen or The Thousand and One Nights, The Happy Prince or Pinocchio, L. Frank Baum or Hermann Hesse, Zipes shows how the authors of our beloved fairy tales used the genre to articulate personal desires, political views, and aesthetic preferences within particular social contexts. Above all, he demonstrates the role that the fairy tale has assumed in the civilizing process--the way it imparts values, norms, and aesthetic taste to children and adults.

This second edition of one of Jack Zipes's best-loved books includes a new preface and two new chapters on J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and E.T.A. Hoffman's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

Genres: Nonfiction, Fairy Tales, Literary Criticism, Academic, Anthologies, Childrens, Adult

238 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Jack David Zipes is a retired Professor of German at the University of Minnesota. He has published and lectured extensively on the subject of fairy tales, their linguistic roots, and argued that they have a "socialization function". According to Zipes, fairy tales "serve a meaningful social function, not just for compensation but for revelation: the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society." His arguments are avowedly based on the neo-Marxist critical theory of the Frankfurt School.

Zipes enjoys using droll titles for his works like Don't Bet on the Prince and The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Ridinghood.

He completed a PhD in comparative literature at Columbia University. Zipes taught at various institutions before heading German language studies at the University of Minnesota. He has retranslation of the complete fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

Reviews

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a series of essays that gives you a shortened forms of famous writers biographies. The bibliography is the back is chock a block full of good tittles to look out for it you want to know more.

[Myersandburnsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My fascination with fairy tales is on the uptick. This was a lovely look at the history of tales and their authors. I’ve found some new authors to check out.

[Margaux · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is organized by section from "History of Fairy Tales" to a chapter on Oscar Wilde. Looks at the motivations behind great collectors and writers like D'Aulnoy, Perrault, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Dickens, Wilde, and many others (obviously... enough to fill an entire book!)

There's an index in the back that takes you through all of the works mentioned, be they collections, authors, or individual tales. I could see this coming in handy for quick research projects, but I really enjoyed reading it as a stand-alone simply because Jack Zipes has a very straightforward writing style. Good Read!

[ספרן הלילה · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice read, but though it touches on various fascinating points, I was disappointed to find many of those points were not picked up and satisfactorily dealt with.

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

[Barbie Angelo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hated the writing style.

[Jessica Bebenek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accessible, conversational language with interesting insights into the origins of fairy tales and storytelling.

[Keisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Resource.