These poem-stories are a strange retelling of seventeen Grimms fairy tales, including "Snow White," "Rumpelstiltskin," "Rapunzel," "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," "The Frog Prince," and "Red Riding Hood." Astonishingly, they are as wholly personal as Anne Sexton's most intimate poems. "Her metaphoric strength has never been greater -- really funny, among other things, a dark, dark laughter" (C.K. Williams).
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A funny, mad, witty, frightening, charming, haunting book."
The New York Times
"These poem-stories are a strange retelling of seventeen Grimms fairy tales, including “Snow White,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Rapunzel,” “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” “The Frog Prince,” and “Red Riding Hood.” Astonishingly, they are as wholly personal as Anne Sexton’s most intimate poems. “Her metaphoric strength has never been greater — really funny, among other things, a dark, dark laughter.” -- C. K. Williams
"A vivid, astonishing, blood-curdling book." -- Stanley Kunitz
"God love her." --Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
The New York Times
"These poem-stories are a strange retelling of seventeen Grimms fairy tales, including “Snow White,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Rapunzel,” “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” “The Frog Prince,” and “Red Riding Hood.” Astonishingly, they are as wholly personal as Anne Sexton’s most intimate poems. “Her metaphoric strength has never been greater — really funny, among other things, a dark, dark laughter.” -- C. K. Williams
"A vivid, astonishing, blood-curdling book." -- Stanley Kunitz
"God love her." --Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
About the Author
Anne Sexton (1928-1974), the author of ten collections of poems, received the Pulitzer Prize in 1967.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have Anne Sexton's complete works, and this book rises above the rest. The fairy tale framework compels more structure and discipline from a poet accustomed to rambling (but often brilliant) confessional observation. It is, in my estimation, her finest work.
Her take on "Snow White" refuses to establish heroines or villains. The girl is a lovely virgin, "cheeks as fragile as cigarette paper...lips like Vin du Rhone." The jealous queen, still beautiful at middle age but fearing that time isn't on her side and informed by her mirror she's no longer "the fairest of them all," tries to kill her. For this, she is punished by torture. The twist here is that Sexton makes it clear that some day the virgin girl will meet the queen's fate: "Meanwhile Snow White held court,/ rolling her china-blue eyes open and shut/ and sometimes referring to her mirror/ as women do."
The lesbian implications of "Rapunzel" are brought to the fore, and the transvestite deception of "Little Red Riding Hood" is remarked on. Sexton crashes the dreamy romance of Cinderella with the mundane reality of marriage. "Happily ever after" is contrasted with "diapers...arguing...getting a middle-aged spread." The Freudian power of mother is accented in the poet's take on "Hansel and Gretel"; Sexton brings out dark implications of child murder and pedophilia that the original tale merely glosses.
Twenty years before Robert Bly tackled the "Iron John" fairy tale, Sexton put her spin on it, stressing the main character's cannibalism and outcast status. She compares the hairy wild man to a string of deeply troubled characters from her imagination. It is here where her poetry reaches the peak of its intensity: "A lunatic wearing that strait jacket/ like a sleeveless sweater, singing to the wall like Muzak.../ And if they stripped him bare/ he would fasten his hands around your throat/ After that he would take your corpse/ and deposit his sperm in three orifices./ You know, I know,/ you'd run away."
Sexton's deep-delving into childhood stories, unearthing the very real and plausible taboos they skirt, is refreshing. Her anachronistic use of modern language (Muzak, for instance) is artful and effective. The best thing about this book, however, is that so much madness and sadness is surmised from such timeless and appealing stories. Happy endings are left intact but with a shadow cast over them. Sexton is a poet of the dark--with no one to save her "from the awful babble of that calling."
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
By belladena
Format:Paperback
In all my readings of fairy tale variations, this has to be one of the best. Anne Sexton takes a grim and twisted approach to the already grim and twisted versions of the Grimm Brothers.
Of course, these poems are simply an extension of Anne Sexton's already established confessional form, but poetry is, first and foremost, an expression of society. These poems fail to remain part of Sexton's inner turmoil. Rather, they mock society and the roles that women are traditionally placed within fairy tales. Anne Sexton, in an example here, uses anachronisms to reach her audience, making references to popular culture.
The Queen Cried two pails of sea water. She was as persistent as a Jehovah's Witness.
Anne Sexton, "Rumpelstiltskin"
Although Sexton's poems are not suitable for an audience of children, they do serve as interesting, even necessary reading, once a child has matured and read beyond the traditional fairy tales that are `suitable' for kids.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sexton as poet-storyteller, retelling dark fairytales with modern details and personal themes
December 27, 2005
By Renee
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
In this remarkable collection of poems, Anne Sexton offers readers seventeen transformations of classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales. As she makes clear in the first poem "The Gold Key", Sexton assumes the persona of the storyteller for this collection, calling herself a "middle-aged witch" with "my face in a book and my mouth wide, ready to tell you a story or two." This device allows her to write about intensely personal topics, such as a sexually abusive father, through the detached voice of a storyteller. The use of fairy tales also provides Sexton with a shared cultural framework that enables her to communicate her own experiences and perspectives in a universal language that readers already understand intimately.
Fairytales have a power few of us realize. The stories shape many of our fantasies as children; they also condition us to accept traditional gender roles as we grow up. I believe that Anne Sexton understood their power and influence. She brilliantly tapped into that power and transformed the tales in a way that forces the reader to look at them with fresh eyes. Before launching into the tales themselves, Sexton set the themes of the stories in a modern or personal context. These connections, along with the interlacing of 20th century details (like soda pop and jockstraps) and her use of modern syntax in the fairy tales made their subversive commentary on the burdens and fears of women in a society shaped by male dominance startlingly clear.
In her transformed tales, Sexton examines the female archetypes they depict: the docile virgin, the wicked stepmother, the aging witch. She also sheds an illuminating, feminist light on the themes of female competition and the idea of happily ever after which pop up often in fairytales. It is significant that Sexton uses the gritty Grimm versions of the tales, instead of the child-friendly Disney versions we grew up with. Their original form reveals the subversive nature and insightful symbolism of the fairy tales, many of which were crafted by women.
While this collection is a departure from Sexton's typical confessional style, the poems of "Transformations" are unabashedly naked and intimately introspective--a wondrous achievement by one of our greatest poets.
Fairytales have a power few of us realize. The stories shape many of our fantasies as children; they also condition us to accept traditional gender roles as we grow up. I believe that Anne Sexton understood their power and influence. She brilliantly tapped into that power and transformed the tales in a way that forces the reader to look at them with fresh eyes. Before launching into the tales themselves, Sexton set the themes of the stories in a modern or personal context. These connections, along with the interlacing of 20th century details (like soda pop and jockstraps) and her use of modern syntax in the fairy tales made their subversive commentary on the burdens and fears of women in a society shaped by male dominance startlingly clear.
In her transformed tales, Sexton examines the female archetypes they depict: the docile virgin, the wicked stepmother, the aging witch. She also sheds an illuminating, feminist light on the themes of female competition and the idea of happily ever after which pop up often in fairytales. It is significant that Sexton uses the gritty Grimm versions of the tales, instead of the child-friendly Disney versions we grew up with. Their original form reveals the subversive nature and insightful symbolism of the fairy tales, many of which were crafted by women.
While this collection is a departure from Sexton's typical confessional style, the poems of "Transformations" are unabashedly naked and intimately introspective--a wondrous achievement by one of our greatest poets.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A poet and a soul worth knowing
To be a great poet, one must possess the soul of a poet as a prerequisite, and the honesty of a human being who is unafraid of revealing their soul to its essential bareness. Read more
Published on February 10, 2010 by Adelina Prokopiev
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous!
I love this book. Ann Sexton's version of Grimm's Tales is somewhat sick and twisted but it's wonderful. The person that owned this book before me made wonderful notes. Read more
Published on March 16, 2009 by T. S. Wells
5.0 out of 5 stars
great book
this book by anne sexton was in great condition. The condition was new, and had no messed up edges or highlighting. I think the seller was very honest and satisfying.
Published on February 17, 2009 by Lee Sears
5.0 out of 5 stars
New Take on Fairy Tales
It probably sounds almost like a cliche, but I still must say it--Anne Sexton takes a new spun perspective on the classic Grimm fairy tales. Read more
Published on February 19, 2008 by M. Kim
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sexton's Transforming Take on Grimm is Fascinating
I teach Anne Sexton in my freshman College English class and I work specifically from this text because the stories are at once familiar shared traditions and disturbing... Read more
Published on October 23, 1999 by Tori Mask (mask1@myriad.net)
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting; One can tell that this is Sexton at work.
Anne Sexton is my favorite poet. This book contains many of the Grimm Brothers tales (virtually all of them), and she rewrote them to say something to us, the readers. Read more
Published on February 20, 1998
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 7
books:
See all 7 books this book cites
- Snow White by Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm on page 2
- The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton by Anne Sexton in Front Matter
- The Awful Rowing Toward God by Anne Sexton in Front Matter
- All My Pretty Ones by Anne Sexton in Front Matter
- To Bedlam and Part Way Back by Anne Sexton in Front Matter
See all 7 books this book cites
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