The Armless Maiden: And Other Tales for Childhood's Survivors [Paperback]

Terri Windling (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1996

The Armless Maiden is more than an extraordinary collection of original fiction and essays by many of fantasy's finest writers. A groundbreaking work in the tradition of Joseph Campbell, Bruno Bettelheim and Robert Bly, this book explores the darker side of childhood--loss, betrayal, oppression, and abuse.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her introduction to this powerful collection of modern-day fairy tales, Windling (editor of the Snow White, Blood Red series) lays out the familiar case that fairy tales are often representations of the psychological terrors of childhood. But she goes beyond the symbolic, invoking statistics about child abuse and molestation to make the case that the transmuting of actual trauma into narrative is demonstrably therapeutic: that fairy tales have the power to act as tools of healing and guides to survival for victims of childhood abuse. The collection consists of 26 stories, 17 poems and a scattering of nonfiction pieces, most of them original to this volume. Many of the selections are retellings of older tales, sometimes transplanted to contemporary settings. Steven Gould's "The Session" puts a modern spin on the Snow White story; Tanith Lee's "She Sleeps in a Tower" presents a darker look at Sleeping Beauty; Ellen Steiber draws on a Brothers Grimm tale, "Brother and Sister," for her story "In the Night Country." Other authors adapt fairy-tale motifs and structures into original tales, as Jane Yolen does in "The Face in the Cloth," Munro Sickafoose in "Knives" and Tappan Wright King in "Wolf's Heart." Though treating common themes, the selections employ a variety of tones and styles that keep the collection from being monotonal. They might have been better arranged, however, since most of the stories that focus specifically on sexual abuse appear in the book's first half and begin to lose force through repetition.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312862210
• ISBN-13: 978-0312862213
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,023,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Terri Windling is a writer, editor, painter, and the director of The Endicott Studio, an organization dedicated to art and literature inspired by myth, folklore, and fairy tales. Windling has published over forty books for adults, young adults, and children, winning seven World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and placing on the short list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. She also writes essays on myth, fairy tales, art, and magical literature which have been published in a variety of magazines and collections in the U.S. and abroad. As a painter, her work has appeared in museums and galleries across the U.S, and Europe. She is a Consulting Editor for Tor Books in New York, and sits on the advisory board of the Mythic Imagination Institute in Atlanta. For more information on the mythic arts field, please visit the Endicott Studio website: www.endicott-studio.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dead-serious fairy tales, November 5, 2001

By 

Kelly (Fantasy Literature) (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Armless Maiden: And Other Tales for Childhood's Survivors (Paperback)

I love adult fairy tales, but it seems that all too often, writers pump up the sex and violence to render the tales "adult", rather than more deeply exploring the human emotional dramas in the stories. Maybe that's why I love _The Armless Maiden_. The tales and poems here do include sex and violence, yes, but at their heart is the triumph of the human spirit.

If we look carefully at fairy tales, many of them are actually about what we would now call child abuse. Cinderella was neglected. Handel and Gretel were abandoned. Donkeyskin suffered incest. And there are so many more. And in most of the stories, the protagonist rises above the situation somehow--in the old versions, usually by gaining fortune and position. In the stories in _The Armless Maiden_, the triumph is more often psychological. I read once--I think it was in a book by Marina Warner--that the essential theme of the fairy tale is transformation. In these stories, we see victims transformed into survivors.

These are serious fairy tales for our times, and I recommend the book both to abuse survivors and to those who did not suffer abuse (trust me, everyone knows someone who did). My personal favorite contributions are Emma Bull's poem about Cinderella's stepsister regretting the friendship they never had, and Ellen Kushner's "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep", the story of a young girl in the custody of a cold-hearted guardian, and haunted by the ghost of the woman's unhappy daughter.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for everyone, but especially survivors of abuse., January 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Armless Maiden: And Other Tales for Childhood's Survivors (Hardcover)

This book has a myriad of short stories, poems, & essays about survivors of child abuse. They are all worked around fairy-tale themes but not Disneyified: no handsome prince comes to rescue a child; instead, these children escape through their own courage & perseverance. An AMAZING book. A shame it is out of print--but I've seen copies used & in remainder bins at bookstores so do yourself a favor & keep looking! This book will make you shudder, weep, cringe, but ultimately leaves you w/a feeling of hope. All the pieces are good, but standouts include Terri Windling's, Charles De Lint's, Ellen Steiber's, & Munro Sickafoose's. Another wonderful aspect is that Windling ignores genre boundaries & hence you see authors such as Sharon Olds & Anne Sexton represented as well. Highly recommended!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, Terrible, and Wonderful, November 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Armless Maiden: And Other Tales for Childhood's Survivors (Paperback)

This book changed my life. I had always enjoyed books edited by Terri Windling, so when I saw her name, it was an automatic purchase. All the stories were excellent, though somewhat harrowing. But it was Ms. Windling's afterward at the end that reduced me to tears. The idea of her going through all that and surviving, even thriving, truly stunned me with her courage. And that is the theme to this book, surviving. When I was done, I sat back and took a long hard look at my own life. And I knew that if she could survive and live, I could too. I won't go into what happened in my childhood, but I had never dealt with it, and it was killing me inside. But after I read this, I got help. Thanks to a kind counsellor, I am happier now than I have ever been. And I have the courage to say yes to life. Read this book. Even if you have never been abused, the insights are invaluable. Also I would recommend 'Deerskin' by Robin McKinley.