Maria Tatar

Tatar challenges the assumptions we make about childhood reading. By exploring how beauty and horror operate in children's literature, she examines how and what children read, showing how literature transports and transforms children with its intoxicating, captivating and occasionally terrifying energy.

"The tale of Bluebeard's wife - the story of a young woman who discovers that her mysterious blue-bearded husband has murdered his former spouses - no longer squares with what most parents consider good bedtime reading for their children. But the story has remained alive for adults, allowing it to lead a rich subteranean existence in novels ranging from Jane Eyre to Lolita, and in films as diverse as Hitchcock's Notorious and Jane Campion's The Piano." "In this work, Maria Tatar analyzes the many forms the tale of Bluebeard's wife has taken over time, particularly in Anglo-European popular culture. It documents the fortunes of Bluebeard, his wife, and their marriage in folklore, fiction, film, and opera, showing how others took the Bluebeard theme and revived it with their own signature twists. Secrets Beyond the Door will appeal to both literary scholars and general readers."--BOOK JACKET.

In a book that confronts our society's obsession with violence, Maria Tatar seeks the meaning behind one of the most disturbing images of twentieth-century Western culture: the violated female corpse. This image is so prevalent in painting, literature, film, and, most recently, in mass media, that we rarely question what is at stake in its representation. Tatar, however, challenges us to consider what is taking place - both artistically and socially - in the construction and circulation of scenes depicting sexual murder. In examining images of sexual murder (Lustmord), she produces a riveting study of how art and murder have intersected in the sexual politics of culture from Weimar Germany to the present.

Examines the genre, cultural implications, and critical history of six classic fairy tales and presents twelve essays on the social origins and issues of gender and national identity present in many of these children's stories. Also explores tales by Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Oscar Wilde, Charles Perrault, Joseph Jacobs, Margaret Atwood, James Thurber, Roald Dahl, et al.

A treasury of dozens of African-American folktales discusses their role in a broader cultural heritage, sharing such classics as the Brer Rabbit stories, the African trickster Anansi, and tales from the late nineteenth-century's "Southern Workman." "Drawing from the great folklorists of the past while expanding African American lore with dozens of tales rarely seen before, The Annotated African American Folktales revolutionizes the canon like no other volume. Following in the tradition of such classics as Arthur Huff Fauset's 'Negro Folk Tales from the South' (1927), Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men (1935), and Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly (1985), acclaimed scholars Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar assemble a groundbreaking collection of folktales, myths, and legends that revitalizes a vibrant African American past to produce the most comprehensive and ambitious collection of African American folktales ever published in American literary history. Arguing for the value of these deceptively simple stories as part of a sophisticated, complex, and heterogeneous cultural heritage, Gates and Tatar show how these remarkable stories deserve a place alongside the classic works of African American literature, and American literature more broadly. Opening with two introductory essays and twenty seminal African tales as historical background, Gates and Tatar present nearly 150 African American stories, among them familiar Brer Rabbit classics, but also stories like 'The Talking Skull' and 'Witches Who Ride,' as well as out-of-print tales from the 1890s' Southern Workman. Beginning with the figure of Anansi, the African trickster, master of improvisation--a spider who plots and weaves in scandalous ways--The Annotated African American Folktales then goes on to draw Caribbean and Creole tales into the orbit of the folkloric canon. It retrieves stories not seen since the Harlem Renaissance and brings back archival tales of 'Negro folklore' that Booker T. Washington proclaimed had emanated from a 'grapevine' that existed even before the American Revolution, stories brought over by slaves who had survived the Middle Passage. Furthermore, Gates and Tatar's volume not only defines a new canon but reveals how these folktales were hijacked and misappropriated in previous incarnations, egregiously by Joel Chandler Harris, a Southern newspaperman, as well as by Walt Disney, who cannibalized and capitalized on Harris's volumes by creating cartoon characters drawn from this African American lore. Presenting these tales with illuminating annotations and hundreds of revelatory illustrations, The Annotated African American Folktales reminds us that stories not only move, entertain, and instruct but, more fundamentally, inspire and keep hope alive."--Dust jacket flaps.

Fairest of Them All She was rumored to be the fairest woman in all of England. But Holly de Chastel considered her beauty a curse. She had already turned away scores of suitors with various ruses, both fair and foul. Now she was to be the prize in a tournament of eager knights gathering from across the land, each more determined than the last to win her hand. Holly had no intention of wedding any of them, and concocted her most outrageous plan yet: to disguise her beauty from their avaricious eyes. But she never planned on Sir Austyn of Gavenmore. The darkly handsome Welshman had come looking especially for a plain bride, and Holly seemed to fit the bill. Suddenly she found herself in the possession of this mysterious stranger, ensconced in his castle, and forced to keep up her carefully planned illusion. Why did this electrifyingly passionate male, who could have any woman he wanted, desire a homely bride—and what would happen when he learned he'd been tricked? By the time Holly found out, it was too late to avoid the searing fires of passion—and the dark curse of Gavenmore.

This collection of eighteen stories introduces young readers to the best in both classic and contemporary fantasy. Featuring extracts from enduring classics such as Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling, C. S. Lewis's The Silver Chair, and Five Children and It by E. Nesbit, this anthology provides the perfect sample of a very popular genre. Carefully selected by Diana Wynne Jones, each story is sure to delight, enchant, and entice youngsters into the imaginative world of fantasy fiction.

"Gathering together twenty-six of our most cherished fairy tales, including enduring classics like "Beauty and the Beast," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "The Little Mermaid," and "Bluebeard," Tatar expertly guides readers through the stories, exploring their historical origins, their cultural complexities, and their psychological effects. Offering new translations of the non-English stories of Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, or Charles Perrault, Tatar captures the rhythms of oral storytelling and, with an extraordinary collection of over 300 often rare, mostly full-color paintings and drawings by celebrated illustrators such as Gustave Dore, George Cruikshank, and Maxfield Parrish, she expands our literary and visual sensibilities."--BOOK JACKET.

xxvi, 518 pages ; 22 cm

Discusses how the Grimms censored fairly tales, examines the violence and cruelty found in the stories, and suggests an approach to interpreting them.

"Drawing from the authoritative version first published in 1857, Tatar, a leading scholar in the field of folklore and children's literature, has gathered over forty Grimm stories, judiciously selecting tales that both resonate with a modern audience and reveal the broad thematic range of the Grimm canon. Readers - parents, children, students - will come to see old favorites anew, including "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Rapunzel," while discovering some of the lesser-known yet equally captivating stories such as "The Star Talers," "Mother Holle," and "The Seven Ravens."" "The stories - newly translated by Tatar - are accompanied by her insightful annotations, hundreds in all, which cover the tales' historical origins, their cultural complexities, and their psychological effects. Over 150 absorbing illustrations - many of them in color - by painters and illustrators such as George Cruikshank, Walter Crane, Kay Nielsen, and Arthur Rackham are reproduced alongside the stories. Including an introduction by A. S. Byatt, the original prefaces of the editions published by the Grimms, a collection of reminiscences about "The Magic of Fairy Tales," and two essays by Tatar - one tracing the lives of the Brothers Grimm, the other examining the history and cultural effects of their collection - The Annotated Brothers Grimm captures the magic and irresistible pull of the tales while unlocking the potent mysteries many of them contain."--BOOK JACKET.