Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The wind being fierce and the tides unobliging, the ship from Harwich has a slow time of it..." (more)
Key Phrases: ugly girl, obscure child, changeling child, Young Woman, Dowager Queen, Papa Cornelius (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Gregory Maguire's chilling, wonderful retelling of Cinderella is a study in contrasts. Love and hate, beauty and ugliness, cruelty and charity--each idea is stripped of its ethical trappings, smashed up against its opposite number, and laid bare for our examination. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister begins in 17th-century Holland, where the two Fisher sisters and their mother have fled to escape a hostile England. Maguire's characters are at once more human and more fanciful than their fairy-tale originals. Plain but smart Iris and her sister, Ruth, a hulking simpleton, are dazed and terrified as their mother, Margarethe, urges them into the strange Dutch streets. Within days, purposeful Margarethe has secured the family a place in the home of an aspiring painter, where for a short time, they find happiness.

But this is Cinderella, after all, and tragedy is inevitable. When a wealthy tulip speculator commissions the painter to capture his blindingly lovely daughter, Clara, on canvas, Margarethe jumps at the chance to better their lot. "Give me room to cast my eel spear, and let follow what may," she crows, and the Fisher family abandons the artist for the upper-crust Van den Meers.

When Van den Meer's wife dies during childbirth, the stage is set for Margarethe to take over the household and for Clara to adopt the role of "Cinderling" in order to survive. What follows is a changeling adventure, and of course a ball, a handsome prince, a lost slipper, and what might even be a fairy godmother. In a single magic night, the exquisite and the ugly swirl around in a heated mix:

Everything about this moment hovers, trembles, all their sweet, unreasonable hopes on view before anything has had the chance to go wrong. A stepsister spins on black and white tiles, in glass slippers and a gold gown, and two stepsisters watch with unrelieved admiration. The light pours in, strengthening in its golden hue as the sun sinks and the evening approaches. Clara is as otherworldly as the Donkeywoman, the Girl-Boy. Extreme beauty is an affliction...

But beyond these familiar elements, Maguire's second novel becomes something else altogether--a morality play, a psychological study, a feminist manifesto, or perhaps a plain explanation of what it is to be human. Villains turn out to be heroes, and heroes disappoint. The story's narrator wryly observes, "In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats." --Therese Littleton --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

The inspired concept of Maguire's praised debut, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, was not a fluke. Here he presents an equally beguiling reconstruction of the Cinderella story, set in the 17th century, in which the protagonist is not the beautiful princess-to-be but her plain stepsister. Iris Fisher is an intelligent young woman struggling with poverty and plain looks. She, her mother, Margarethe, and her retarded sister, Ruth, flee their English country village in the wake of her father's violent death, hoping to find welcome in Margarethe's native Holland. But the practical Dutch are fighting the plague and have no sympathy for the needy family. Finally, a portrait painter agrees to hire them as servants, specifying that Iris will be his model. Iris is heartbroken the first time she sees her likeness on canvas, but she begins to understand the function of art. She gains a wider vision of the world when a wealthy merchant named van den Meer becomes the artist's patron, and employs the Fishers to deal with his demanding wife and beautiful but difficult daughter, Clara. Margarethe eventually marries van den Meer, making Clara Iris's stepsister. As her family's hardships ease, Iris begins to long for things inappropriate for a homely girl of her station, like love and beautiful objects. She finds solace and identity as she begins to study painting. Maguire's sophisticated storytelling refreshingly reimagines age-old themes and folklore-familiar characters. Shrewd, pushy, desperate Margarethe is one of his best creations, while his prose is an inventive blend of historically accurate but zesty dialogue and lyrical passages about saving power of art. The narrative is both "magical," as in fairy tales, and anchored in the reality of the 17th century, an astute balance of the ideal and sordid sides of human nature in a vision that fantasy lovers will find hard to resist. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (October 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060987529
• ISBN-13: 978-0060987527
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (288 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,341 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

110 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inventive and compassionate retelling of Cinderella, December 6, 1999

By	U.N. Owen (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Hardcover)

Just when you think there have been too many re-imagined versions of well-known fairy tales along comes one that brilliantly reinvents perhaps the archetype of all fairy tales. Maguire, who previously wrote a subversively political tale about the wicked witch of the west, surpasses his debut novel with this compassionate tale of beauty and familial duty. Once again his richly detailed prose captures that feeling of a once upon a time that true fairy tales require and does so without ever appearing artificial. This story of Iris and Ruth, their complex mother Margarethe, and their stepsister Clara of the 'afflicted eternal beauty' is filled with wonderfully shaded characterizations that never fall into that good/evil dichotomy that Grimm and Perault use in telling the original versions. Can kindness reside within ugliness? Is beauty and attractiveness really something to be envious of? Is a mother's apparent tyrannical household an environment that will produce wickedness? Is a nearly mute sibling nothing more than a drudge to babysit? Find the answers to these not so simple questions within Maguire's excellent story and be prepared to be reassess your own prejudices about the 'ugly' and the 'beuatiful.'

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Magic Continues....., June 22, 2000

By	Jibia (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Hardcover)

When I first read "Wicked", the first adult novel written by Gregory Maguire, I was spellbound. I went out and recommended it to all my friends. So one can imagine my thrill when I went on-line and discovered that the author of my favorite book had written a second. This book was, of course, "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister". I didn't sit down intending to simply read it, I engulfed it, and I was very pleased to find that what Maguire did in "Wicked" was not a one-time only occurance. Needless to say, it's a very enjoyable book. It takes a classic story that everyone knows, and tells the side of the story that people don't know, the side of the so-called 'villan'. Like "Wicked", you get wrapped up in the story and the characters. Unlike "Wicked", it's a light read, no politics, no tremendous notions, just deep thought on basic human concepts. And, despite the familiarity of the story Cinderella, there is little predictability in the novel; every page is a new discovery and a new surprise. All in all, and excellent book with something for everyone, and as such, a great read.

71 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And they lived happily ever after ..., February 16, 2000

By	Sheryl A. Lemma (Sterling, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Hardcover)

The readers of this book, that is. Gregory McGuire has hit another one out of the park with "Confessions." Following up on "Wicked," the first of McGuire's expanded fairy tales, "Confessions ..." tells the story behind the story of Cinderella.

Childhood fairy tales, true to their intended audiences, tell stories of black and white, good and evil. Once we all grow up, though, we realize that the world is many shades of gray. McGuire's stories reflect that adult knowledge. That is why this story is so fun to read. I voraciously read fairy tales as a child, and McGuire has allowed me to revisit the stories of my childhood while entrancing me as an adult. His are quick reads, which is somewhat disappointing, because the end always comes too soon.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and I will be waiting for my 'prince in shining armor' to write me another grown-up tale!