Seriously didn't. We had no books of with fairytales in them when I was little. I knew of Aesop's fables. Got a book of his fables from school, one of those "free book things" they did every year at the grade school I went to, and honestly loved it. But no, no fairytales. Didn't stumble upon them at school, didn't run across them at libraries (no librarians ever suggested books sadly). So growing up really did think the Disney animated movies based on them were just stories they came up with for the movies and not something based on a book or story that already existed. Which is sad. Missed out on so many amazing stories. So when I did discover fairytales I went a little nuts with them and devoured any and all I came across.
The Twelve Dancing Princesses is such a good one. :D Entwined is a retelling of it and done pretty nicely. So few retellings of that particular story.
I can't say I like a lot of Hans Christian Anderson's stories (the Eleven Wild Swans is good!) the Little Sea Maid though was one of the first of his I read and it just kind of grabbed my attention. The Disney version is good. I adore Flounder and Scuttle a bit too much. Such cute characters. :)
Now that version I haven't read yet. Very much do need to though. Craziness. Maybe at the time it was written, for whatever reason, it was considered no big thing with Beast demanding Beauty sleep with him and than Beauty taking advantage of the Beast after he transforms back to his true self.
I only found the Villeneuve version linked above when researching for this post; this seems to be the only place on the net that it exists! Be warned: it is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY long. There's a pile of guff about Beauty's dad's time with the Beast, the different rooms and entertainments, all the dreams she has of the prince, and a huge argument at the end where the queen doesn't want Beauty to marry her son because she's just a commoner and the fairy has to reveal that no, actually she's a princess in disguise. Beaumont did the tale a favour in my opinion by removing all of that.
The Villeneuve version was written for an adult audience so the risque elements could be got away with. The academics all seem to think that it's about women learning to embrace sex and sexual desires along with the more chaste romantic ideals, usually within the context of arranged (if not outright forced) marriages. Beast is decidedly polite in actually bothering to ask if she wants to sleep with him - and then to listen and accept it when she says no would have been gobsmacking!
The Twelve Dancing Princesses is such a good one. :D Entwined is a retelling of it and done pretty nicely. So few retellings of that particular story.
I can't say I like a lot of Hans Christian Anderson's stories (the Eleven Wild Swans is good!) the Little Sea Maid though was one of the first of his I read and it just kind of grabbed my attention. The Disney version is good. I adore Flounder and Scuttle a bit too much. Such cute characters. :)
Now that version I haven't read yet. Very much do need to though. Craziness. Maybe at the time it was written, for whatever reason, it was considered no big thing with Beast demanding Beauty sleep with him and than Beauty taking advantage of the Beast after he transforms back to his true self.
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The Villeneuve version was written for an adult audience so the risque elements could be got away with. The academics all seem to think that it's about women learning to embrace sex and sexual desires along with the more chaste romantic ideals, usually within the context of arranged (if not outright forced) marriages. Beast is decidedly polite in actually bothering to ask if she wants to sleep with him - and then to listen and accept it when she says no would have been gobsmacking!
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