Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales [Paperback]

Kate Bernheimer (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 13, 2002

New edition (revised and expanded) available 8/13/02.

Fairy tales are one of the most enduring forms of literature, their plots retold and characters reimagined for centuries. In this elegant and thought-provoking collection of original essays, Kate Bernheimer brings together twenty-eight leading women writers to discuss how these stories helped shape their imaginations, their craft, and our culture. In poetic narratives, personal histories, and penetrating commentary, the assembled authors bare their soul and challenge received wisdom. Eclectic and wide-ranging, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall is essential reading for anyone who has ever been bewitched by the strange and fanciful realm of fairy tales.

Contributors include: Alice Adams, Julia Alvarez, Margaret Atwood, Ann Beattie, Rosellen Brown, A. S. Byatt, Kathryn Davis, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Deborah Eisenberg, Maria Flook, Patricia Foster, Vivian Gornick, Lucy Grealy, bell hooks, Fanny Howe, Fern Kupfer, Ursula K. Le Guin, Carole Maso, Jane Miller, Lydia Millet, Joyce Carol Oates, Connie Porter, Francine Prose, Linda Gray Sexton, Midori Snyder, Fay Weldon, Joy Williams, Terri Windling.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Long, long ago before fairy tales were sanitized, generations of bloodthirsty children enjoyed the ghoulish stories packed between book covers by Hans Christian Andersen and the brothers Grimm. Their plots seethed with curious, featherbrained girls who sealed their doom by opening forbidden doors; resourceful siblings deliberately lost in the woods by weak, loving fathers; and boys left with wings for arms when a hurried transformation was bungled. Margaret Atwood, Francine Prose, and Fay Weldon are among the 24 contemporary women authors in Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who contribute lucid, powerful essays on the fears, morals, and archetypes fairy tales scrawl out in letters ten-feet tall. --Francesca Coltrera, Women's Studies contributing editor

From Library Journal

Editor Bernheimer, formerly a creative writing fellow at Phillips Exeter Academy, has brought together 24 contemporary women writers to discuss the impact of fairy tales on their personal lives, their work, and the cultures in which they were raised. Authors such as Julia Alvarez, Margaret Atwood, Rosellen Brown, A.S. Byatt, bell hooks, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Joyce Carol Oates, and Linda Gray Sexton write diverse essays, from personal histories to scholarly explications of the tales that continue to resonate, from childhood into adulthood. Amidst a plethora of works on the symbolism and archetypal significance of fairy tales as well as heated debate in many forums concerning the merits of Disney's animated versions, this is a refreshingly honest look at the genre on a realistic and personal level as well as a revealing look at the writers themselves. Recommended for gender studies collections in all school, academic, and public libraries.?Katherine K. Koenig, Ellis Sch., Pittsburgh
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 341 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (August 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385486812
• ISBN-13: 978-0385486811
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #570,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kate Bernheimer is the author of a short story collection (Horse, Flower, Bird, Coffee House Press, 2010) and a trio of novels (The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold, 2001; The Complete Tales of Merry Gold, 2006; and The Complete Tales of Lucy Gold, 2011). She has edited three fairy-tale anthologies including the World Fantasy Award winning My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales (Penguin Non-Classics, 2010), which she edited (with assistance from Carmen Gimenez Smith). She also writes children's books, including The Girl in The Castle inside The Museum (Random House Children's Books/Schwartz & Wade), which was illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli and was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2008. The Lonely Book, her second children's book, illustrated by Chris Sheban, is forthcoming from Random House Children's Books/Schwartz & Wade on February 14, 2012. A third is currently being illustrated. Kate Bernheimer founded and edits the literary journal Fairy Tale Review. She is Associate Professor & Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative and often surprising, September 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales (Paperback)

This collection was a splendid idea on the part of editor Kate Bernheimer. It's fascinating to see how many superb contemporary female writers (I dislike the term "woman writer"--have you ever heard of a "man writer"?) have been inspired or influenced by specific fairy tales, often in astonishing ways. Each writer was asked to respond to a question about how she herself responded to one or more fairy tales. The results range from fictional revisions of famous tales to meditations, confessions, or brief and very interesting scholarly essays. Bernheimer asked the right women, too: Margaret Atwood, Fay Weldon, Joyce Carol Oates, some young writers just starting out, and some surprises. I borrowed this book from the library and then realized that I had to buy my own copy!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking and fun., November 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales (Paperback)

Some short, some long, these essays are everything from quick and wandering dialogues to beautifully crafted essays. They're not necessarily *about* anything in particular. The only thing they have in common is that the authors, many of whom will be known to you, use a fairy tale as a sounding board for their miscellaneous ideas... on girlhood, feminism, and storytelling. They are of wide variety (some are less ambitious than others), all engaging. The only downside is that it's a quick read -- more like reading magazine articles than an absorbing non-fiction book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Contribution to Folklore Field, May 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales (Paperback)

This collection of essays should have received a lot more attention as an important contribution to the folklore field when it was first published. I don't understand why it was not reviewed more broadly. Bernheimer's book should be of interest to anyone who reads or studies fairy tales -- and who doesn't?