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And then the queen kissed the princess: fairytales get a modern makeover And then the queen kissed the princess: fairytales get a modern makeover
(35 minutes later)
Neil Gaiman has just added a fairytale retelling, The Sleeper and the Spindle, to his list of books for younger readers. While earlier titles, such as Coraline and The Graveyard Book, feature strong fairy- and folktale elements, and false mothers, eerie seductresses, otherworlds and fell creatures abound throughout his work, this is the first time he’s set his own stamp on a well-worn, classic story.Neil Gaiman has just added a fairytale retelling, The Sleeper and the Spindle, to his list of books for younger readers. While earlier titles, such as Coraline and The Graveyard Book, feature strong fairy- and folktale elements, and false mothers, eerie seductresses, otherworlds and fell creatures abound throughout his work, this is the first time he’s set his own stamp on a well-worn, classic story.
The Sleeper and the Spindle is actually two stories – a “sort-of Snow White” meets an “almost Sleeping Beauty” – The Sleeper and the Spindle is actually two stories – a “sort-of Snow White” meets an “almost Sleeping Beauty” – and it features Greenaway-winning Chris Riddell’s characteristically detailed and heavy-browed illustrations, always just the right side of grotesque, in black and white picked out with gold. In Gaiman’s story, the kiss that awakens the slumbering princess is not from a prince – princes remain firmly off stage, or dead in a thicket of roses – but from a young queen, who rises on her wedding day and dons chain mail to ride to the rescue. It’s not a love story, but a tale of courage, determination and disconcerting tragedy and terror.
and it features Greenaway-winning Chris Riddell’s characteristically detailed and heavy-browed illustrations, always just the right side of grotesque, in black and white picked out with gold. In Gaiman’s story, the kiss that awakens the slumbering princess is not from a prince – princes remain firmly off stage, or dead in a thicket of roses – but from a young queen, who rises on her wedding day and dons chain mail to ride to the rescue. It’s not a love story, but a tale of courage, determination and disconcerting tragedy and terror.
Outright retelling might be new for Gaiman, but rejigged fairytales remain very much in vogue. In November, Russell Brand’s take on The Pied Piper of Hamelin, also illustrated by Chris Riddell, will appear. It’s the first in a series of Trickster Tales and features hip-hop gangsta rats and a “glint-eyed” philosopher-piper. And last year Sally Gardner published Tinder, a haunting revisiting of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Tinderbox, which also boasts compelling images, this time by David Roberts – all shadows, blood and elongated, terrible claws. Tinder is set against the backdrop of the Thirty Years’ War, beginning with a young man, Otto Hundebiss, apparently escaping death on the battlefield, only to stray into a dangerous love affair. But even the power of his mysterious tinderbox, which compels the obedience of three werewolves, may not be sufficient to free him from his destiny.Outright retelling might be new for Gaiman, but rejigged fairytales remain very much in vogue. In November, Russell Brand’s take on The Pied Piper of Hamelin, also illustrated by Chris Riddell, will appear. It’s the first in a series of Trickster Tales and features hip-hop gangsta rats and a “glint-eyed” philosopher-piper. And last year Sally Gardner published Tinder, a haunting revisiting of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Tinderbox, which also boasts compelling images, this time by David Roberts – all shadows, blood and elongated, terrible claws. Tinder is set against the backdrop of the Thirty Years’ War, beginning with a young man, Otto Hundebiss, apparently escaping death on the battlefield, only to stray into a dangerous love affair. But even the power of his mysterious tinderbox, which compels the obedience of three werewolves, may not be sufficient to free him from his destiny.
The Sleeper and the Spindle isn’t the first retelling to stray away from the ”boy-kisses-girl” bias of traditional fairytales. Although Gaiman’s book features a big, central illustration of the queen kissing the princess, it’s not a gay love story. But Malinda Lo’s Ash, an evocative and compelling take on Cinderella, is one. Ash, short for Aisling, grieves for her mother’s death and her enforced exile from her beloved childhood home as she works for her stepmother, paying off her father’s inherited debts. To win the freedom to ride with the King’s hunt, she pledges herself to Sidhean, a cruel but besotted fairy – but it’s not him Ash really wants, it’s the King’s Huntress …The Sleeper and the Spindle isn’t the first retelling to stray away from the ”boy-kisses-girl” bias of traditional fairytales. Although Gaiman’s book features a big, central illustration of the queen kissing the princess, it’s not a gay love story. But Malinda Lo’s Ash, an evocative and compelling take on Cinderella, is one. Ash, short for Aisling, grieves for her mother’s death and her enforced exile from her beloved childhood home as she works for her stepmother, paying off her father’s inherited debts. To win the freedom to ride with the King’s hunt, she pledges herself to Sidhean, a cruel but besotted fairy – but it’s not him Ash really wants, it’s the King’s Huntress …
And in January next year, Holly Black, another luminary of contemporary fantasy, will bring readers a faery prince slumbering in a glass coffin, adored both by Hazel and her brother Ben, in The Darkest Part of the Forest.And in January next year, Holly Black, another luminary of contemporary fantasy, will bring readers a faery prince slumbering in a glass coffin, adored both by Hazel and her brother Ben, in The Darkest Part of the Forest.
Readers hungry for fairytales full of dauntless, death-and-destiny-defying women might also want to dip into Robin McKinley’s older retellings: Beauty, Spindle’s End and Deerskin (which is based on a Charles Perrault fairytale and deals unflinchingly with ideas of incest and rape). It would be good to see Gaiman and Riddell taking on another fairytale – I’d be interested to see what their version of, say, Snow White and Rose Red, or East of the Sun and West of the Moon, might look like. And who knows where Russell Brand will go with his Trickster Tales.Readers hungry for fairytales full of dauntless, death-and-destiny-defying women might also want to dip into Robin McKinley’s older retellings: Beauty, Spindle’s End and Deerskin (which is based on a Charles Perrault fairytale and deals unflinchingly with ideas of incest and rape). It would be good to see Gaiman and Riddell taking on another fairytale – I’d be interested to see what their version of, say, Snow White and Rose Red, or East of the Sun and West of the Moon, might look like. And who knows where Russell Brand will go with his Trickster Tales.