• in the original tale of Rapunzel, the title character gives birth to twins alone in the wilderness before she is reunited with her Prince?
• Snow White's evil stepmother, when she arrives at Snow White's wedding, is forced by the happy couple to dance in red hot iron shoes until she falls down dead?
• the Little Mermaid does not live "happily ever after" with her prince, but instead turns into seafoam when he marries another?
• Janet was not the "playmate" of Tam Lin, but instead his lover and pregnant with his child when she risked her life to rescue him from the Faerie Queen?
• Cinderella's stepsisters cut off parts of their feet in an attempt to fit into the glass slipper and then get their eyes pecked out by birds as they go to her wedding?

If not, you may have dismissed fairy tales as "just for kids." But, in the beginning, fairy tales were written not written for children, but for adults [1,2], who were just as attracted to stories of sex, violence, revenge, adventure, horror, love, and triumph against the odds as they are today. It not until 1830-1900 that the tales first began to be sanitized for younger audiences [2].

Authors have been writing "literary" fairy tales for hundreds of years, and today is no exception [2]. Robin McKinley, Donna Jo Napoli, and Adèle Geras are some of the most prolific authors in this genre, but many others have tried their hand at it. The novels and short stories presented on this site continue the tradition of reclaiming the land of Faerie from children, challenging our "Disneyized" stereotypes of what fairy tales should be. Strong heroines replace wilting princesses, evil is found in unexpected places, and "happily ever after" isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

Whether you like Fantasy, Horror, Humor, Romance, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, or Modern Fiction, you will find a fairy tale based novel or short story for you! Go ahead, pick your favorite tale and see why fairy tales aren't just for kids...

Choose Your Favorite Fairy Tale!

Additional Resources:

SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages- For each tale is included: annotations, a history, illustrations, a list of similar tales from other cultures, a bibliography, a book gallery, and a list of modern interpretations of the tale in novel, short story, picture book, poetry, music, film, and drama form. Also includes a fairy tale discussion bulletin board.

Arthurian Booklist- If you enjoy novels based on fairy tales, you may also enjoy novels based on Arthurian legend. See this site for a bibliography including fiction and poetry on this subject.

King Arthur Books- Another webpage that includes listings of books based on Arthurian legend.

Shadows of Sherwood- You may also enjoy these books, based upon the legend of Robin Hood.

Sources:

1- Windling, Terri. "Introduction" in Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. New York: Tor, 1991. [found at the beginning of any book in the Fairy Tale Series, edited by Terri Windling]

2- Zipes, Jack. "Introduction" in Spells of Enchantment. New York: Viking, 1991. [a great source of short stories based on fairy tales that have been written throughout the history of the genre]

Created by Amanda Pippitt for LIS 304, Literature and Resources for Young Adults

Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Last Updated 4/30/03