Customer Reviews

The Sleeping Beauty (Everyman's Library Children's Classics)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Arthur Rackham not only excelled at creating full color illustrations; he also was an unrivalled master at the art of the silhouette. In this reprinted children's classic, Rackham lavishly illustrates C.S. Evan's intricate retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story with one amazing silhouette after another. One of my favorite illustrations when I was a child was a fabulous two-page cross-section of Sleeping Beauty's palace, including such great details as slumbering cats, doves, scullery maids, the king and queen on their thrones, and of course the princess in her high tower. It never ceases to impress me how much a masterful artist like Rackham could communicate just with beautifully crafted graphic shapes alone- and remember, just because something's not in color, doesn't mean it's not good! Highly recommended!

I love this book. If you are someone who loves the Sleeping Beauty story, it's a must. The book itself is sturdy in hardback, and worth the investment. Rackham's artwork is funny, done in the silhouette style of black and white cut-out, enhanced with red and green inks for dramatic effect. It takes on a timeless look, reminding me of the end of the summer season. C.S. Evens tells the story in the fullest detail you will find, stretching it to 11 chapters. This is the romantic version, and talks nothing of wicked mothers or babies getting eaten up by ogres! Instead, this story begins with the princess's parents and the frog; it details the jobs of the servants and what goes in the castle, the 12 good fairies and the mad one... The curse. The advice of the wizards, the destruction of the spinning wheels, the princess growing up, and the demise of the curse's reign. Of course, there are MANY princes that attempt to break the curse, but only ONE makes it through!

Good solid, short telling of the classic tale. Definately not the Disney version but a great story at a great price.

In this version of the classic fairytale, the King and Queen are (as always) basically reduced to cyphers who are consumed by their longing for offspring. Things get weird early on in the story when a talking frog confronts the queen in the bathroom and says it will grant her the desire of her heart; a child of her own. The queen is delighted at the frog prophecy, and the frog is never mentioned again. Baby Briar-Rose is born shortly, and there's some gender stereotype reinforcement right away because the King wants to hold his baby daughter but can't because "men are so clumsy with babies". You may rule the kingdom, sir, but infant-holding is out of your depth!

Briar-Rose is beautiful and intelligent even as a baby, and then her 12 fairy godmothers come to her christening to gift and bless her until she's a proper Mary Sue: she gets exceeding Beauty, Cleverness, Virtue, Gracefulness, Vocal Talent, Dancing Ability, and more. But all these gifts won't avail her when she turns fifteen, because there are actually 13 fairies in the kingdom, and the monarchs forgot to invite the cranky, depressed recluse who lives with her cat. The bad fairy is angry at being slighted, and she curses Briar-Rose to die of a spindle cut when she turns fifteen. But luckily, the youngest fairy in the kingdom is an action heroine. She wisely hides herself away and pops out when the bad fairy is done with her curse, then she says that Briar-Rose will just sleep for 100 years instead of dying. A prince's kiss will wake her, and then all will be right with the world.

Many people say that the Sleeping Beauty story exemplifies female submissiveness and weakness by having the princess lying unconscious while the prince gallantly rescues her helpless self. But aside from the brave prince, all the power in the story lies with the women. The sympathetic Queen gives birth to the angelic princess, and the fairies are all female and can use their considerable powers for good or for evil. The dozens of male wizards in this story are no help at all in a crisis, until one of them comes up with the non-magical solution to burn all the spindles in the kingdom. Which turns out to be a silly idea, anyway.

There are so many absurd moments in this version of the story, I begin to think they are intentional. At Briar-Rose's christening, we get a detailed menu of the food served, and it's hilarious: "Force-meat balls flavoured with rare spices from the East" (What is Force-meat? Protein for Jedi?), "Steaming boar's heads with lemons in their mouths" (notice it's not an entire boar--just the head), "Ortolans" (are these fish, flesh, or fowl?), and "Bears' hams" (Ham made out of bears, or ham stolen from bears? "Bears'" is a plural possessive, so I choose to believe that Briar-Rose's parents stole their foodstuffs from local bears).

Other fairytales have heavy-handed morals, but you cant' accuse Sleeping Beauty of this. What could the moral possibly be? "Always invite everybody to every party?" "Keep a good fairy in reserve to undo curses?" Goodness isn't really rewarded and badness isn't really punished, here. The 100-years' sleep has no negative effects on anyone, and the bad fairy isn't punished for her badness nor the youngest fairy rewarded for her awesomeness. It's a charming story, but there's little to no takeaway value.

The inspiration that this Fairyland story brings, through the engaging artistic images and flow is not a fiction. The powers of Truth, Love and Virtue are real, even though often dormant within us. The books like this can ignite and awake them (not unlike Kundalini awakening in Yoga). Along with princess, the whole kingdom awakes, as the same deep spiritual process happens between the Spiritual Collective and Individual and most importantly, in the Awakening of the own Soul. The princess is our True Nature, the prince is an unbending Intent towards our highest ideal, something most beautiful and perfect we can imagine and strive upon, regardless of the thorns of lost values, disregard to the noble aspirations and "grow-up" cynicism.

This story is quite charming still; it's quite close to the Disney version except for a few small details that make it feel antiquated and give one a chuckle too. The first unintentional funny for me was when the king wasn't allowed to nurse his new daughter because according to the story "men are clumsy with babies". I thought back to Disney's too when the prince came to wake her. I realized how silly it was that the movie had her so prettily laid in her bed when in the original everyone fell asleep at the same time so there would've been no one to arrange her like that. All things considered though it's still quite enjoyable.

Disney's Sleeping Beauty is a wonderful classic, loved for generations, and will continue to be loved by future generations. Disney adds loveable characters to the classic story, such as the three good fairies. One thing to be aware of before purchasing this book is that it contains MANY pages and would not be ideal if it is planned to use this book as a bedtime story (unless bedtime isn't for a long time).

The story line is good but at times the author put 'and so on' which was made me feel like the book was poorly written. also the pictures that it so-called cames with didnt show up. good thing I got fornothing cause that is about all its worth