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The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault
The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault
Dec 19, 2025 8:39 PM

Author:Angela Carter,Jack Zipes

The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault

In eighteenth century France, Charles Perrault rescued from the oral tradition fairy tales that are known and loved even today by virtually all children in the West. Angela Carter came across Perrault's work and set out to adapt the stories for modern readers of English. In breathing new life into these classic fables, she produced versions that live on as classics in their own right, marked as much by her signature wit, irony, and subversiveness as they are by the qualities that have made them universally appealing for centuries.

Reviews

Claudia Carroll has done it again, with a cracking cast of supporting characters and a heroine you just want fate to smile on. Hugely enjoyable.

—— HEAT

Funny, quirky, romantic...It's impossible to put down once started.

—— MY WEEKLY

Captivating.

—— NOW magazine

Engrossing... vivid... packed with historical illumination, unforgettable characters... the greatest triumph is the way all this material illuminates the larger landscape of faith

—— Washington Post

Intelligent, compelling, with several decent twists

—— Guardian

Gripping and beautifully written

—— RED Magazine

Delivers a dazzling high wire act between fact and fiction, and shines light from every angle on the divisive topic of American polygamy in a compelling and timely novel

—— Danny Scheinmann, author of Random Acts of Heroic Love

Coming on the heels of the newsmaking raid on the FLDS polygamist sect in Texas, this lyrical yet fact-packed epic about the Mormon practice of plural marriage is both timely and transporting... a literary tour de force

—— People Magazine

Ebershoff's sensitive and topical tale of hijacked religion and sexual tyranny, true community and freedom, provides much food for thought in the mode of such seriously popular writers as Jodi Picoult

—— Booklist (starred & 'Up Front' review)

The 19th Wife is a big book, in every sense of the word... it does that thing all good novels do: it entertains us

—— LA Times

Employing the dual narrive idea with aplomb... dishes the dirt on what it's really like being one of many wives. Funny, profound and utterly transporting

—— Marie Claire

This exquisite tour de force explores the dark roots of polygamy and its modern-day fruit in a renegade cult... compelling... essential reading

—— Publishers Weekly (starred/'Pick of theWeek')

Wonderful... like A.S.Byatt, whose brilliant novel Possession also split the narrative between time periods, Ebershoff uses a series of fictionalized documents to add depth and perspective to his tale... thought-provoking

—— Sacramento News & Review

Fascinating... demonstrates abundant virtuosity, as he convincingly inhabits the voices of both a nineteenth-century Mormon and a contemporary gay youth excommunicated from the church, while also managing to say something about the mysterious power of faith

—— New Yorker

Both strands of the novel come together to form a fascinating overview of "Mormondom". The day-to-day realities of polygamy are brought home in the small domestic detail

—— Independent

Weaves a surprising amount of information into the dual narratives... [teaches] about Mormonism and the cancer of polygamy at its heart...well crafted to maintain suspense... at its best when he describes the Utah desert and mountains, where he finds brutality, violence and bucolic beauty

—— TLS

A great, compulsive read... the combination of faith, murder, sex, salvation and ultimately, love, is a heady mix

—— Saga

Although disturbing and heart-wrenching in parts, this book is an informative, and engaging whodunnit thriller

—— Yorkshire Evening Post

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in

—— Evelyn Waugh
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