Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's Life [Paperback]

Joan Gould (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2006

What’s your favorite fairy tale? Whether it’s “Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Hansel and Gretel,” or another story, your answer reveals something significant about you, your experiences, and your soul. In this penetrating book, Joan Gould brings to the surface the hidden meanings in fairy tales and myths, and illuminates what they can tell you about the stages in your own life. As Gould explores the transformations that women go through from youth to old age–leaving home and mother, the first experience of sexuality, the surprising ambivalence of marriage, the spiritual work required by menopause and aging–her keen observations will enrich your awareness of your inner life.
Full of archetypal figures known to us all, Spinning Straw into Gold also includes stories from the lives of ordinary women that clarify the insights to be gained from the beloved tales that have been handed down from one generation to the next.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The virginal princess, the ugly stepsister, the wicked witch: through timeless fairy tales and their contemporary adaptations in films and novels, such caricatures have become deeply embedded in the collective consciousness and have helped shape society's standards for feminine beauty and behavior. Assigning them real-life counterparts, Gould examines how such stereotypes influence a woman's life as she moves from maiden to matron to crone through a comprehensive analysis of these familiar storybook characters. If Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty represent a young girl's confrontation of parental authority and cultural expectations, then Rapunzel, Jane Eyre, and Scarlett O'Hara symbolize her coming-of-age, and the tales of Hansel and Gretel and Demeter and Persephone explore ways in which elderly women face their final years and eventual death. In an engaging and erudite analysis of how these metamorphoses have been informed by or reflected in our ancient myths and contemporary mores, Gould reevaluates the personas women adopt in real life and in literature. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Brilliant . . . belongs by any woman’s bedside, inside any commuting woman’s briefcase, next to any woman’s reading chair, for its surprising yet deeply recognizable truths about women’s lives.”
–Elizabeth Berg, author of The Year of Pleasures and Open House

“Open Joan Gould’s lovely book anywhere and you will find something recognizable, as relevant today as when you were a child. That’s the magic of fairy tales. Be wise, be strong, and grab life like the heroes and heroines in Spinning Straw into Gold.”
–Nancy Friday, author of My Mother, My Self and My Secret Garden

“Taking the life of woman through her changes, from maiden to matron to crone, Joan Gould has written a passionate song of praise for life itself. Her book is as nourishing as the fairy tales she treats. Her inspired Spinning Straw into Gold rejuvenates us all.”
–Robert Fagles, translator of The Iliad and The Odyssey

“This is at once a deep yet thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable book.”
–Maggie Scarf, author of Secrets, Lies, Betrayals and Intimate Partners

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (February 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812975456
• ISBN-13: 978-0812975451
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maiden, Mother, Crone, May 24, 2005

By 

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

This review is from: Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's Life (Hardcover)

For the record, my answer to Joan Gould's first question--"What's your favorite fairy tale?"--is "Beauty and the Beast".

This question begins a beautiful, lyrical exploration of many fairy tales, both famous and obscure, and how they relate to the different stages of women's lives. In the Sleeping Beauty chapter, for example, she delves into the psyche of a young woman just awakening into sexuality; for Beauty and the Beast she explores a woman's experience with courtship and the beginning of marriage, and for the tale of Demeter she talks about being an older woman, watching one's child choose her own path. These are just a few examples. For every tale Gould draws parallels to other, more modern novels and movies that contain fairy-tale archetypes, like Jane Eyre, Pretty Woman, The Story of O, Harry Potter, and Wuthering Heights. I saw myself reflected over and over in these pages, both in the chapter that best fit my current circumstances and in all those that preceded it. I concur with the reviewer who says she wished she'd had this book when she was 18. It just "clicks" so well with things I'd experienced but not known how to name, and ties them in with the stories I've always loved, revealing to me just why those stories never lose their resonance with me.

My only quibble is that Gould focuses more on the biological aspects of womanhood--menstruation, sex, childbirth, menopause--than on other sorts of choices women make, like career and creativity. She does mention these things, but they are not given as much emphasis.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Women who love Joseph Cambell or Jung will love this book!, March 13, 2005

By 

Julia H. Galdo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's Life (Hardcover)

We have always known that fairy tales speak to our souls. If you want to know why, you will find this book fascinating. Think of a combination of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung and you have Spinning Straw into Gold. It is amazing how these stories speak to us across centuries. And it is also fascinating to see how differently - and richly -- they are interpreted in this book. Most of what I knew was in the Disney versions, and I have seen here there is a lot more to explore! So reach over the oceans, back over time, into our collective unconscious to see what messages there are for you. I highly recommend the journey!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Friendly Word of Caution, July 17, 2011

By 

Villa-lotta - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal About the Transformations in a Woman's Life (Paperback)

I found the authors writing to be poetic and the content verbally well formed. From this perspective it was a good book.

What I found disconcerting was that this writer seems fixated on the female biology rather then the MANY things that make a women a whole person. These fairy tales were written long ago when society viewed women as little more then objects. I feel that the author is very good at continuing this line of thought. If one were not to know any intelligent women you might think, after reading this book, that the only persute that a women had in life was to get a mate and procreate, and that the best moments in a womens life are experianced on her back and that she pines for this day and night. This books off balanced aproach to the MANY aspects of being human degrades the person to less then human. The books constent ability to make almost ALL things sexual or to sexualize them became cheap and overly easy. In the end I walked away feeling little more then an unthinking chimp in the zoo because of the lack of its ability to validate that a womens content is far more then just her sexuality.

If you are confused are unsure about your physiology or biology and why you behave in certain ways, and would like it explained through fairy tales then this is the book for you. If you want to be validated as a whole person that is more then just a biological hormonal sex object then this book could prove to be upsetting. I personally was not ready to have womenhood degraded to only such narrow aspects but, maybe others might find it entertaining to explore there body chemistry through fairy tales.