The Turnip Princess: And Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales

Description

With this volume, the holy trinity of fairy tales-the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen-becomes a quartet. In the 1850s, Franz Xaver von Sch nwerth traversed the forests, lowlands, and mountains of northern Bavaria to record fairy tales, gaining the admiration of even the Brothers Grimm. A rare discovery in the world of fairy tales-now for the first time in English Move over, Cinderella- Make way for the Turnip Princess! And for the "Cinderfellas" in these stories, which turn our understanding ofgender infairy tales on its head. With this volume, the holy trinity of fairy tales-the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen-becomes a quartet.In the 1850s, Franz Xaver von Sch nwerth traversed the forests, lowlands, and mountains of northern Bavaria to record fairy tales, gaining the admiration of even the Brothers Grimm. Most of Sch nwerth's work was lost-until a few years ago, when thirty boxes of manu-scripts were uncovered in a German municipal archive. Now, for the first time, Sch nwerth's lost fairy tales are available in English. Violent, dark, and full of action, and upending the relationship between damsels in distress and their dragon-slaying heroes, these more than seventy stories bring us closer than ever to the unadorned oral tradition in which fairy tales are rooted, revolutionizing our understanding of a hallowed genre. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators.

Franz Xanver von Schonwerth (1810-1886) was born in Bavaria and had a successful career in law and the Bavarian royal court. He later devoted himself to researching the customs of his homeland and preserving its fairy tales and folklore. His important work was lost for many years until it was rediscovered in an archive a few years ago. Maria Tatar chairs the program in folklore and mythology at Harvard, and has edited and translated many collections of fairy tales. Eeika Eichenseer is a historian and preservationist working for the Bavarian government and the director of the Franz Xaver von Schonwerth Society.

These eminently enjoyable tales offer a rich new take on the material of the Grimms and Andersen ... The tales are vigorous, direct, and less artful then those of the Grimms, suggesting greater authenticity, closer to the source * Library Journal *