Buried Treasures - by Jack Zipes

Book Synopsis

Fascinating profiles of modern writers and artists who tapped the political potential of fairy tales

Jack Zipes has spent decades as a "scholarly scavenger," discovering forgotten fairy tales in libraries, flea markets, used bookstores, and internet searches, and he has introduced countless readers to these remarkable works and their authors. In Buried Treasures, Zipes describes his special passion for uncovering political fairy tales of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, offers fascinating profiles of more than a dozen of their writers and illustrators, and shows why they deserve greater attention and appreciation.

These writers and artists used their remarkable talents to confront political oppression and economic exploitation by creating alternative, imaginative worlds that test the ethics and morals of the real world and expose hidden truths. Among the figures we meet here are Édouard Laboulaye, a jurist who wrote acute fairy tales about justice; Charles Godfrey Leland, a folklorist who found other worlds in tales of Native Americans, witches, and Roma; Kurt Schwitters, an artist who wrote satirical, antiauthoritarian stories; Mariette Lydis, a painter who depicted lost-and-found souls; Lisa Tetzner, who dramatized exploitation by elites; Felix Salten, who unveiled the real meaning of Bambi's dangerous life in the forest; and Gianni Rodari, whose work showed just how political and insightful fantasy stories can be.

Demonstrating the uncanny power of political fairy tales, Buried Treasures also shows how their fictional realities not only enrich our understanding of the world but even give us tools to help us survive.

Review Quotes

"Buried Treasures is a culmination of Zipes's thoughts on fairy tales and storytelling, based on a long career as a leading scholar in both fields."---Patrick Ryan, Book 2.0

"Buried Treasures: The Power of Political Fairy Tales seeks to acquaint us with a wider group of writers of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries who made use of the fairy tale form to tell their stories. . . . These essays push us outward to explore these writers and find marginalized works, 'buried treasures, ' on our own."---George Bodmer, Children's Literature Association Quarterly

"[Buried Treasures] is sure to delight those already familiar with Zipes's work, as well as those who are approaching it for the first time. . . . Part of the pleasure of this volume is discovering the many varied and extraordinary ways that fairy tales have been rewritten and reworked."---Jean R. Freedman, Journal of Folklore Research Reviews

"Buried Treasures is an apt title for this collection of profiles of modern writers and illustrators who used fairy tales to make political statements. . . . Highly recommended."-- "Choice"

"Buried Treasures shows . . . how fairy tales and fantasies may provide keys to understanding the world and why unburying them remains more than ever essential today."---Laurence Talairach, Literature & History

"[Buried Treasures] successfully illuminates the many thematic congruences among the featured writers and yields striking insights into the enduring relevance of their writings. . . . Zipes's commentary manifests the fruitfulness and relevance of unburying long-forgotten fairy tales. . . . [A] powerful, timely book."---Ann Schmiesing, German Studies Review

"A potent testament to the power of stories."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of the Year"

"Zipes is a rare and precious commodity: an academic who is readable and accessible."---Terry Potter, Letterpress Project

About the Author

Jack Zipes is the author of The Irresistible Fairy Tale, translator of The Original Bambi and The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, and editor of The Sorcerer's Apprentice (all Princeton). He is professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota.