Sleeping Beauty

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Novels:

Go to amazon.comBeauty by Sherri S. Tepper, Bantam Spectra, 1992- Beauty lives in 14th century England, daughter of a nobleman and a Faery mother (who has abandoned her to return to Faery). Little does she know that she carries the hope and salvation of the world within her. Her adventures take her far into the future, into imaginary lands, and into Faery itself. Along the way the origins of the tales of Sleeping Beauty, Tam Lin/Thomas the Rhymer, Cinderella, Snow White, and the Frog Prince are revealed.

Go to amazon.comBeauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey, Pulse, 2002- Princess Aurore was cursed by cousin Jane at birth to die by the prick of a needle when she turns 16. Godmother Chantal could not undo the curse, but tried to alter it so that she would not die, but instead sleep. When Aurore finally turns 16, the two spells start a war within her, causing disaster for the kingdom in the form of rains of blood, darkness, lightning, and other strange events. It looks like the only way to save the kingdom is for Aurore to prick her finger and await the consequences...

Go to amazon.comBriar Rose by Jane Yolen, Tor Books, 2002- All her life Becca's grandmother has told her the story of Sleeping Beauty, but with some peculiar differences to the story the rest of us know. After her grandmother's death, Becca sets out to learn the truth of why this tale was so important to her, a journey that brings her to the site of Chelmno...an old Nazi extermination camp in Poland.

Go to amazon.co.ukClementine by Sophie Masson, Hodder, 2001- Lady Aurora and her friend Clementine are both under an evil fairy's curse that has caused them to sleep for 100 years. When they are finally awakened, they must learn the truth about their intertwined destinies.

Go to amazon.comEnchantment by Orson Scott Card, Del Rey, 2000- A mixture of Sleeping Beauty and Russian folklore, this novel tells the story of Ivan, who emigrated with his parents to the U.S. when he was a boy. Throughout the years, he dreams of a clearing in the Carpathian forest, a clearing where a beautiful woman lies sleeping amongst the fallen leaves...and a malevolent force lays in wait to strike out at those who come too near. Now in Russia gathering data for his Ph.D. dissertation on the origin of Russian fairy tales, he goes in search of that clearing to discover if there is any truth behind this dream.

Go to amazon.comGates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey, DAW Books, 2003- For reasons kept secret from her, Marina has lived all her life not with her parents, but with a group of bohemian artists living in Cornwall. Just before she turns 18, her parents are killed in an accident while on vacation in Italy and strange men arrive at the cottage proclaiming that her aunt, who she has never met, is her true guardian. Taken against her will to live with her aunt and cousin at the family estate of Roeswood, Marina immediately senses that her life is in danger.

Go to amazon.comSpindle's End by Robin McKinley, Ace Books, 2001- A newborn princess named Rosie is cursed at her christening to die on her 21st birthday when she is crowned heir to the kingdom. She is rescued and hidden in the remotest part of the kingdom, a town called Foggy Bottom. However, Rosie is not a clichéd princess, but a strong and clever heroine who, in the end, doesn't need any prince to come to her rescue.

Go to amazon.comUtterly Charming by Kristine Grayson, Zebra Books, 2000- Nora Barr, a young lawyer trying to start her own practice in Portland, Oregon gains a strange (and handsome) new client named Alex Blackstone who claims he is a mage. Suddenly, she becomes part of a strange plot to store a glass coffin, which may or may not contain a 1,000-year-old sleeping woman, in a VW minibus for 10 years.

Go to amazon.comThoroughly Kissed by Kristine Grayson, Zebra Books, 2001- Ten years after Emma Lost was awakened from a 1,000 year sleep, she is a history professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The new head of the department, Michael Found, is suspicious about the validity of her scholarship on her best-selling pop culture book, "Light on the Darkness, England from 450-1100 AD" and sets out to prove she is a fraud. What he doesn't realize, of course, is that her book is based on firsthand knowledge.

Go to amazon.comWatching the Roses by Adèle Geras, Harcourt, 1998- The second book in the Egerton Hall trilogy, this novel is the story of Alice. On the night of her 18th birthday party, Alice is raped. Afterwards she withdraws in to a comatose state. Will she be able to gather the courage to awake and live again?

Short Stories:

Go to amazon.com"Charm" in The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold by Francesca Lia Block, Joanna Cotler, 2001- The needle Rev is pricked by is not from a spinning wheel, but instead a needle filled with heroin. Who will wake her from her nightmare?

Go to amazon.com"The Lady in the House of Love" in The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, Penguin USA, 1990- The Countess, heir of Nosferatu, lies in wait for victims to enter her bed chamber.

Go to amazon.com"The Tale of the Needle" in Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins by Emma Donoghue, HarperTrophy, 1999- The story of an overprotected girl who must finally take a risk in order to truly live her life.

Go to amazon.com"Thorns" in Red as Blood, or, Tales from the Sisters Grimmer by Tanith Lee, DAW Books, 1983- The Prince in this tale goes to a lot of trouble to wake an enchanted princess, so why is he so filled with fear when she finally awakes?

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