Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Folktales [Library Binding]

Alison Lurie (Author), Margot Tomes (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1980

Sleeping beauties? Not Clever Gretchen or Kate Crackernuts or Manka or any of the other young heroines in this wonderful collection of folktales. Active, witty, brave, and resourceful, these girls and young women can fight and hunt, defeat giants, answer riddles, outwit the Devil, and rescue friends and family from all sorts of dangers and evil spells. These stories and many others like them were gathered by scholars from all the countries of Europe, but are usually left out of the popular collections of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when women were supposed to be beautiful, innocent, and passive.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Allison Lurie is the author of nine novels, including Foreign Affairs (Pulitzer Prize 1985) and a collection of short stories, Women and Ghosts. She has also published two non-fiction books on children’s literature, Don’t Tell the Grownups and Boys and Girls Forever, and is the editor of The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales and American Fairy Tales. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Library Binding: 113 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (March 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0690039441
• ISBN-13: 978-0690039443
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,626,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And the winner is...., April 10, 2002

By 

Carabeth (the USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Folktales (Library Binding)

Really- it sounds like a plain boring book- but it's not! No, From original stories like Clever Gretchen to Twisted ones like the sleeping prince or Mollie Whippie- it had all that and a bag of potatoes. My favourite was Kate Crackernuts. Then came the Sleeping Prince, next Manka and the Judge.
All of the tales are of strong women who outwit, set straight, and save the "Man's" world from GIANTS,bugurlers,enchanted sleeps (what did you think the sleeping prince was about?) and other horrible creatures.
THis book is a must- but you might understand the wording a little better if you're a pre-teen or teenager.Enjoy it, I did!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Have loved this book for twenty five years, October 24, 2010

By 

Alia Ganaposki - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Folktales (Library Binding)

I still have this book, a Christmas present from 25 years ago. Not only did this slim little book tell interesting stories, it told them *well*. So many well-meaning authors talked down to the reader or simply retold hero stories with a girl in the traditional masculine role. These stories have the weight of the oral tradition behind them-- they did spring out of real cultures, not just second wave feminist minds-- and the women in them save the day in many ways, from swords to smarts to stubborn determination to hold on no matter what. Another aspect I love is that these women are brave for themselves as well as for families, for lovers-- and, in Kate Crackernuts' tale (one of my favorites)--for step-sisters. It's easy to say "sisterhood is powerful", but it's special to find a story where it really is. I hope this book gets republished, it really is a lovely collection.