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Clever Maids

The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales

Clever Maids Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Valerie Paradiz

Formats and Prices

Price

$9.99

Price

$12.99 CAD

Format

ebook

Format:

ebook $9.99 $12.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around April 27, 2009. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

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The famous fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm – stories like Snow White , Red Riding Hood , and Rumplestiltskin – are know to millions of people around the world and are deeply embedded in the collective psyche. In this charming account, writer and scholar Valerie Paradiz reveals the true story of how the fairy tales came to be. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, collectors and editors of more than 200 folk stories, were major German intellects of the nineteenth century, contemporaries of Goethe and Schiller. But as Paradiz reveals here, the romantic image of the two brothers traveling the countryside, transcribing tales told to them by peasants, is a far cry from the truth. In fact, more than half the fairy tales the Grimm brothers collected were actually contributed by their educated female friends from the bourgeois and aristocratic classes. While German folkloric scholars-all of them male-fancied themselves the keepers of the cultural flame, it was a handful of women who ensured that millions would know the stories of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella by heart. Set against the backdrop of the chaotic Napoleonic wars and the years of high German romanticism, Clever Maids chronicles one of the most fascinating literary collaborations in European history and brilliantly captures the intellectual spirit of the men and women of the age. Even more, it illuminates the ways in which the Grimm tales, with their mythic portrayals of courage, sacrifice, and betrayal, still speak so powerfully to us today.

Genre:

On Sale
Apr 27, 2009
Page Count
240 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780786738533

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Valerie Paradiz

About the Author

Valerie Paradiz holds a Ph.D. in German Studies and has taught at Bard College. She is the author of Elijah’s Cup, as well as numerous translations. She lives in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York.

Learn more about this author