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78 reviews for:
The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales
Franz Xaver von Schönwerth
3.54 AVERAGE
78 reviews for:
The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales
Franz Xaver von Schönwerth
3.54 AVERAGE
This is such a wonderful exploration of rough, unrefined oral tradition. anyone interested in symbol, archetype or myth (or just fairy tales!) would enjoy them.
Overall a good collection; some weird and interesting stories, especially The Turnip Princess, Legend of the Merman, and The Enchanted Fiddle. Would have liked more footnotes, analysis, and commentary; this was rather lacking.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So, I love fairy tales. Folktales. Fables. Love 'em all.
That said, and while I respect that these are presented to us pretty much as they were found in the archives, in tone and in coherence they pretty much resemble the kind of stories my preschooler makes up. And I get that -- these are narratives, not meant to be a gorgeous, well-written work. But it's hard to sit down and read these, one after the other, for any kind of long stretch.
That said, and while I respect that these are presented to us pretty much as they were found in the archives, in tone and in coherence they pretty much resemble the kind of stories my preschooler makes up. And I get that -- these are narratives, not meant to be a gorgeous, well-written work. But it's hard to sit down and read these, one after the other, for any kind of long stretch.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
I really like to read fairy tales. I would read them all the time. They don’t need to be modern retellings to be awesome.
I really enjoyed the tales told in The Turnip Princess. The tales aren’t the cleaned up versions with perfect endings like the Disney versions. Some of these stories aren’t ones that I would want to read to little children before bed. Then again, I wouldn’t want to with some of the Grimm stories either.
The stories in this volume are great because they take the types (basic plot structures) we know and love and change them up a bit. There are surprises that I didn’t expect to see and twists that make these stories unique.
I found these stories enjoyable and was glad that I was able to read them.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
This review first appeared at Orandi et Legendi.
I really enjoyed the tales told in The Turnip Princess. The tales aren’t the cleaned up versions with perfect endings like the Disney versions. Some of these stories aren’t ones that I would want to read to little children before bed. Then again, I wouldn’t want to with some of the Grimm stories either.
The stories in this volume are great because they take the types (basic plot structures) we know and love and change them up a bit. There are surprises that I didn’t expect to see and twists that make these stories unique.
I found these stories enjoyable and was glad that I was able to read them.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
This review first appeared at Orandi et Legendi.
THIS TOOK SO LONG TO READ I FELT INSANE. it’s good but it’s just so bare bones and i get why but ughhhh. will def be revisiting the authors note/explanation of the stories as it was the most intresting part
I found this pleasant enough to read although it's not a particularly stand out book unless you're SUPER into fairy tales. The writing is generally pretty close to a barebones oral retelling without elaboration or attempts to turn it into a "proper" story. This has its charms and is obviously valuable as a historical thing although there are quite a few stories which are kind of incoherent presumably because of all the oral changing. As you would expect most of the themes are pretty familiar if you've read much fairy tale stuff and there's some stories which are clearly the same but regional variation type thing but there's some changing up of things. The blurb suggests there's a bit more preservation of more impolite elements but it's not like a big thing. I forgot to read the introduction before returning it to the library (woops) but there's some helpful notes on each story and an appendix that links each story to the fairy tale classification thing I forget the name of.
One thing that interested me is how a decent proportion feature a noble treating the protagonist unbelievably badly, imprisoning them on a ridiculous pretext and threatening to kill them, and then the happy ending is them being like "oh ok actually you're fine" and then say marrying their daughter or whatever. Hard to explain but it's a weird theme.
There are a couple of stories in here that really seem out of step with the others.
There's also one about a tailor who moves to a village with his mum. For some reason the rest of the villagers take a big disliking to them (vaguely implied cause they're rich and idle or something) and so the men collectively decide to murder the tailor. The tailor susses out their plan and lets his mum get murdered in his place, then does some shenanigans with the body. He then murders EVERY MAN IN THE VILLAGE through drowning them iirc. The story ends with him just going off to another village. It's so weirdly violent and amoral and there's no justification given at all.
Which is fascinating
I'd only recommend it if you're really interested in the wider history of fairy tales and their variations - it's very readable but there's only a few unusual tales here.
One thing that interested me is how a decent proportion feature a noble treating the protagonist unbelievably badly, imprisoning them on a ridiculous pretext and threatening to kill them, and then the happy ending is them being like "oh ok actually you're fine" and then say marrying their daughter or whatever. Hard to explain but it's a weird theme.
There are a couple of stories in here that really seem out of step with the others.
Spoiler
First one features a guy who really wants to marry a princess getting 3 magical items, losing each one to her individually because of his naivety, then recovering them through a trick, them seeming to reconcile... and then he murders them and burns down their city! And it just ends. It's a fascinating and weird reversal of the theme I just mentioned.There's also one about a tailor who moves to a village with his mum. For some reason the rest of the villagers take a big disliking to them (vaguely implied cause they're rich and idle or something) and so the men collectively decide to murder the tailor. The tailor susses out their plan and lets his mum get murdered in his place, then does some shenanigans with the body. He then murders EVERY MAN IN THE VILLAGE through drowning them iirc. The story ends with him just going off to another village. It's so weirdly violent and amoral and there's no justification given at all.
Which is fascinating
I'd only recommend it if you're really interested in the wider history of fairy tales and their variations - it's very readable but there's only a few unusual tales here.