The Lost Princess - by Anne E Duggan (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Once upon a time: the forgotten female fabulists whose heroines flipped the fairy tale script.

People often associate fairy tales with Disney films and with the male authors from whom Disney often drew inspiration--notably Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen. In these portrayals, the princess is a passive, compliant figure. By contrast, The Lost Princess shows that classic fairy tales such as "Cinderella," "Rapunzel," and "Beauty and the Beast" have a much richer, more complex history than Disney's saccharine depictions. Anne E. Duggan recovers the voices of women writers such as Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy, Marie-Jeanne L'Héritier, and Charlotte-Rose de La Force, who penned popular tales about ogre-killing, pregnant, cross-dressing, dynamic heroines who saved the day. This new history will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about the lost, plucky heroines of historic fairy tales.

Review Quotes

"A captivating and insightful exploration of the oft-overlooked contributions of French female authors, shedding light on how their narratives and perspectives have significantly impacted the evolution of literary fairy tales in Europe and America. . . . Fairy tales written by women appealed to adults with risqué, gender-challenging, and gender-fluid themes, including the royal class in the United Kingdom and its elite culture."-- "Journal of Folklore Research Reviews"

"Scholars such as Ruth Bottigheimer, Maria Tatar, Jack Zipes, Cristina Bacchilega, and Marina Warner have led the way in recovering the history of women and fairy tales. Now Duggan provides an innovative and deeply researched study of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French women and their contributions to the genre: Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy, Marie-Jeanne L'Héritier, Henriette-Julie de Murat, Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont, and others. Drawing on the uses of intertextuality, Duggan traces the evolution of tales, focusing on Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, cat tales, and maiden warrior tales. She demonstrates that some of these stories started as literary tales and became oral (the reverse of the longtime assumption that oral tales came first). She discusses the dissemination of the French originals into German, Czech, and Mexican comics, film, theater, music, and board games. She also astutely analyzes how gender, sexual norms, female agency, cross-dressing, and arranged marriages appear in these tales. Duggan has rescued these writers, who have been 'buried under the Perrault-Grimms-Anderson triumvirate and Walt Disney.' Reaktion Books used fine paper and reproduced the almost four-dozen illustrations in exquisite detail and sometimes in color. A book to be treasured! Essential."-- "Choice"

"'Excavating History, ' to create The Lost Princess has led Duggan to some remarkable origins and aspects of some Fairy Tales. We accept a Cinderella who patiently puts up with drudgery and abuse and is rewarded in the end with the prince's hand and heart. But in earlier versions of this tale, Cinderella was merciless to her stepmother and not very forgiving of her stepsisters. There is plenty of bloodshed and revenge in these tales with this not so meek character. Duggan has looked at tales from many countries and has spared no detail to bring us the truth. Women from the beginning have been the story tellers and these early women remain unacknowledged until now."-- "Blue Wolf Reviews"

"Duggan does not aim merely to supplement the narrative of males writers with a few women at the margins. Rather, she seeks to shift the mainstream. . . . [She] shows that we should regard the conteuses not as incidental curiosities, exhumed then quickly forgotten, but as princesses of literary history who were never really lost at all."-- "Times Literary Supplement"

"Drawing on decades of research, Duggan is a wise, brave, witty guide to fairy-tale history. The Lost Princess demonstrates that smart, resourceful heroines abound in the French tales of past centuries. The brilliant women who wrote those tales challenged patriarchal norms in ways that continue to resonate today."--Jennifer Schacker, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph, and author of "National Dreams: The Remaking of Fairy Tales in Nineteenth-Century England"

"Excavating history can lead to stunning discoveries, and Duggan brilliantly demonstrates how several talented and determined French women wrote tales that belong to our classical legacy without our realizing it. History, as Duggan indicates, speaks truth to power through these tales, but we must first learn how to untangle history to grasp what truth may mean. Duggan shows that these rebellious French women had, long before other European and North American writers, created dazzling stories that challenged male patriarchy."--Jack Zipes, professor emeritus of German and comparative literature, University of Minnesota

About the Author

Anne E. Duggan is professor of French and fairy-tale studies at Wayne State University, Michigan. She is the author, editor, or translator of many books, including A Cultural History of Fairy Tales.