maria tatar – VoVatia (original) (raw)

Tag Archives: maria tatar

Weird Worlds of Words

Uprooted, by Naomi Novik – This is the first book I read by this author. I know she has a popular series of books set during the Napoleonic Wars but with dragons. Partially inspired by Slavic mythology, it’s the tale … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Dr. Seuss, Fairy Tales, L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, Magic, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors | Tagged bas-lag, charlie holmberg, china mieville, enchanted hunters, house of leaves, iron council, maria tatar, mark z. danielewski, naomi novik, new crobuzon, perdido street station, postmodernism, the scar, uprooted |

Fairy Tales from the Final Frontier

I haven’t been doing a lot of book reviews recently, have I? Well, maybe I have and just can’t remember. Regardless, I just finished one book and had a few others I didn’t think I could say enough about to … Continue reading →

Posted in A. Lee Martinez, Arabian, Authors, Book Reviews, Fairy Tales, Humor, Mythology, Tom Holt | Tagged brothers grimm, carswell thorne, cinderella, cress, djinn rummy, emperor mollusk versus the sinister brain, hansel and gretel, jinn, little red riding hood, lunar chronicles, maria tatar, marissa meyer, princess winter, queen levana, rapunzel, scarlet, snow white, the hard facts of the grimms' fairy tales, winter |

You’re a Crook, Captain Hook

The Annotated Peter Pan – I had read the book before without the annotations, but apparently didn’t have much to say about it. The annotated version, with notes by Maria Tatar, gives more details on how James Barrie developed the … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged arthur rackham, captain james hook, fairies, james barrie, maria tatar, peter and wendy, peter pan, peter pan in kensington gardens, pirates, sylvia llewyllen davies, the annotated peter pan |

Everybody Loves Bremen

Since Calvin just recently mentioned the story of the Bremen Town Musicians, I thought it might be a good idea for the subject of another fairy tale post. I remember finding this one amusing when I first heard it as … Continue reading →

The Satanic Family Players

One curious character who shows up in at least two fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm is the Devil’s grandmother. She puts in appearances in one story called simply “The Devil and His Grandmother” (sometimes called “The Dragon and … Continue reading →

Posted in Christianity, Fairy Tales, German, Mythology, Religion, Russian, Slavic | Tagged brothers grimm, devil's grandmother, hans christian andersen, jack and the beanstalk, maria tatar, satan, the annotated brothers grimm, the devil and his grandmother, the devil with the three golden hairs, the dragon and his grandmother, the girl who trod on the loaf |

Princess Makes Perfect

Pretty much, right? I mean, the story only worked out because the princess not only couldn’t get to sleep because there was a pea under twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds, but complained about it the next morning. Isn’t that rather … Continue reading →

Who’s Been Sleeping in My Porridge?

I’ve seen a few people ask why, in “The Story of the Three Bears,” the Mama and Papa Bear are sleeping in separate beds. In fact, this was actually a plot device in Jasper Fforde’s The Fourth Bear, as was … Continue reading →

Leading with the Chinny-Chin-Chin

The earliest written versions of “The Three Little Pigs” date back to Britain in the 1840s. It’s thought that the tale is sort of an updated version of “The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids,” in which the wolf tricks … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartoons, Fairy Tales | Tagged bible, big bad wolf, brothers grimm, gospels, jesus, little red riding hood, maria tatar, silly symphonies, the annotated classic fairy tales, the three little pigs |

Let’s Make Some Magic

High Wizardry, by Diane Duane – The third book in the Young Wizards series finds Nita’s brainy sister Dairine becoming a wizard, transporting herself across galaxies, and creating life with help from a computer. As the book was written in … Continue reading →

The Beanstalker

We all know the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, in which a poor boy is scammed into trading his cow for a few beans. Except it isn’t really a scam, because the beans automatically grow into a beanstalk, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Fairy Tales, Mythology | Tagged benjamin tabart, bible, bruno bettelheim, genesis, giants, humbaba, imperialism, jack and the beanstalk, jacob's ladder, joseph jacobs, maria tatar, ogres, robin hood, the annotated classic fairy tales, thunderdell, world tree |