num_pages: 455
description: Most people think of fairy tales as having been created anonymously and almost magically long ago, and later discovered and recorded by scholars such as the Brothers Grimm. In fact original fairy tales are still being written. Over the last century and a half many well-known authors have used the characters and settings and themes of traditional tales such as 'Cinderella', 'Hansel and Gretel', and 'Beauty and the Beast' to produce new and characteristic works of wonder and enchantment. The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales brings together forty of the best of these stories by British and American writers from John Ruskin and Nathaniel Hawthorne to I. B. Singer and Angela Carter. These tales are full of princes and princesses, witches and dragons and talking animals, magic objects, evil spells, and unexpected endings. Some of their authors, like John Ruskin and Oscar Wilde, use the form to point a social or spiritual moral; others such as Jeanne Desy and Richard Kennedy, turn the traditional stories inside out to extraordinary effect. James Thurber, Bernard Malamud, and Donald Barthelme, among many others, bring the characters and plots of the traditional fairy tale into the contemporary world to make satiric comments on modern life. The literary skill, wit, and sophistication of these stories appeal to an adult audience, even though some of them were originally written for children. They include light-hearted comic fairy stories like Charles Dickens's 'The Magic Fishbone' and L. F. Baum's 'The Queen of Quok', thoughtful and often moving tales like Lord Dunsany's 'The Kith of the Elf Folk' and Philip K. Dick's 'The King of the Elves', and profoundly disturbing ones like Lucy Lane Clifford's 'The New Mother', and Ursula Le Guin's 'The Wife's Story'. Together they prove that the fairy tale is not only one of the most popular and enduring forms, but a significant and continually developing part of literatureContentsUncle David's nonsensical story about giants and fairies (1839) by Catherine SinclairFeathertop (1846) by Nathaniel HawthorneThe king of the Golden River (1850) by John RuskinThe story of Fairyfoot (1856) by Frances BrowneThe light princess (1864) by George MacDonaldThe magic fishbone (1868) by Charles DickensA toy princess (1877) by Mary De MorganThe new mother (1882) by Lucy Lane CliffordGood luck is better than gold (1882) by Juliana Horatia EwingThe apple of contentment (1886) by Howard PyleThe griffin and the minor canon (1887) by Frank StocktonThe selfish giant (1888) by Oscar WildeThe rooted lover (1894) by Laurence HousmanThe song of the morrow (1894) by Robert Louis StevensonThe reluctant dragon (1898) by Kenneth GrahameThe book of beasts (1900) by E. NesbitThe Queen of Quok (1901) by L. Frank BaumThe magic shop (1903) by H.G. WellsThe Kith of the Elf-folk (1910) by Edward PlunkettThe story of Blixie Bimber and the power of the gold Buckskin Whincher (1922) by Carl SandburgThe lovely Myfanwy (1925) by Walter De La MareThe troll (1935) by T.H. WhiteGertrude's child (1940) by Richard HughesThe unicorn in the garden (1940) by James ThurberBluebeard's daughter (1940) by Sylvia Townsend WarnerThe chaser (1941) by John CollierThe King of the Elves (1953) by Philip K. DickIn the family (1957) by Naomi MitchisonThe jewbird (1963) by Bernard MalamudMenaseh's dream (1968) by Isaac Bashevis SingerThe glass mountain (1970) by Donald BarthelmePrince Amilec (1972) by Tanith LeePetronella (1973) by Jay WilliamsThe man who had seen the rope trick (1976) by Joan AikenThe courtship of Mr Lyon (1979) by Angela CarterThe princess who stood on her own two feet (1982) by Jeanne DesyThe wife's story (1982) by Ursula K. Le GuinThe river maid (1982) by Jane YolenThe porcelain man (1987) by Richard KennedyOld Man Potchikoo (1989) by Louise Erdrich
language: English
title: The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales
titlecomplete: The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales
genres: Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy, Folklore, Childrens, Mythology, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Fairy Tales
ratings_count: 432
awards: awardedAt: 757411200000
name: World Fantasy Award
category: Best Anthology
publisher: Oxford University Press