Book Review: Victorian Fairy Tales by Michael Newton
“Fairy tale stands for all that the Gradgrinds and the Bounderbys of the world would reject; in place of fact, calculation, and the ratio, they propose fancy and mystery; in place of a mathematical and analytical understanding, they offer affection, intuition, and strangeness.”
You won’t find any Disney-fied stories in this collection of classic Victorian tales. Think you know the story of The Three Bears? I bet you don’t remember an old woman jumping out the window and possibly breaking her neck at the end.
It’s a simple anthology of a good verity of Victorian fairy tales, with a long introduction that explains the differences between primitive oral fairy tales and Victorian fairy tales. Newton even explains the styles certain authors use for their fairy tales and how they contrast from others.
Overall Victorian Fairy Tales was a good read that I recommend to anyone who enjoys fairy tales or short stories.
