1st Edition

When Dreams Came True Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition

By Jack Zipes Copyright 2007

    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? Until now we have lacked a social history of the fairy tale to frame our understanding of the role it plays in our lives. With the publication of When Dreams Came True, Jack Zipes fills this gap and shifts his focus to the social and historical roots of the classical tales. With coverage of the most significant writers and their works in Europe and North America from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, When Dreams Came True is another important contribution by the master of fairy tales. From the French Charles Perrault to the American L. Frank Baum and the German Hermann Hesse, Zipes explores the way in which particular authors used the genre of the fairy tale to articulate their personal desires, political views and aesthetic preferences in their particular social context. At the core of this magical tour through the history of the fairy tale is Zipes' desire to elucidate 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. His journey takes us to the familiar and the exotic in the great classical tales by Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen and in such fascinating works as Pinocchio, The Thousand and One Nights, The Happy Prince and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Throughout, Zipes reveals the historical dimensions of the tales and demonstrates their continuing relevance in our lives today.

    Chapter 1 Spells of Enchantment; Chapter 2 The Rise of the French Fairy Tale and the Decline of France; Chapter 3 The Splendor of the Arabian Nights; Chapter 4 Once There Were Two Brothers Named Grimm; Chapter 5 The “Merry” Dance of the Nutcracker; Chapter 6 I'm Hans Christian Andersen; Chapter 7 The Flowering of the Fairy Tale in Victorian England; Chapter 8 Oscar Wilde's Tales of Illumination; Chapter 9 Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio as Tragic-Comic Fairy Tale; Chapter 10 Frank Stockton, American Pioneer of Fairy Tales; Chapter 11 L. Frank Baum and the Utopian Spirit of Oz; Chapter 12 Revisiting J. M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy and Neverland; Chapter 13 Hermann Hesse's Fairy Tales and the Pursuit of Home;

    Biography

    Jack Zipes is Professor of German at the University of Minnesota and one of the leading folklorists and critics of children's literature in the U.S. He is the author of many books, including Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood, Don't Bet on the Prince, Breaking the Magic Spell, Creative Storytelling, and Happily Ever After, all published by Routledge.

    "An enticing reexamination of cherished texts." -- Kirkus Reviews
    "...Zipes writes with a keen sense of balance between the discourse of the academy and the passion of the reader, between the authority and the fan, and he sends us back to material we thought was familiar, and makes us see it differently." -- Locus
    "Jack Zipes...uncovers provocative new layers of meaning by viewing the collection and creation of now classic tales by the Brothers Grimm. Hans Christian Andersen and others through the lens of history." -- The New York Times
    "...a fascinating social history of the uses and abuses to which fairy tales have been put in the course of their transformation from tales told orally by adults to adults into written (and frequently homogenized) bedtime stories parents read to the children. Zipes persuasively argues that fairy tales keep alive our 'longing for a better world that can be created out of our dreams and actions'." -- New York Times Book Review
    "Zipes has forged a career out of brilliant and subversive analyses of fairy tales...Intelligent and thoughtful fun, without deconstructing the land of Faerie into dust and ashes." -- Booklist