Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Transformations by Anne Sexton ISBN: 0-618-08343-X Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 15 February, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Dark and Lovely Exploration of Fairy Tales
Comment: I have Anne Sexton's complete works, and this book rises above the rest. The fairy tale framework compels more structure and discipline from a poet accustomed to rambling (but often brilliant) confessional observation. It is, in my estimation, her finest work.
Her take on "Snow White" refuses to establish heroines or villains. The girl is a lovely virgin, "cheeks as fragile as cigarette paper...lips like Vin du Rhone." The jealous queen, still beautiful at middle age but fearing that time isn't on her side and informed by her mirror she's no longer "the fairest of them all," tries to kill her. For this, she is punished by torture. The twist here is that Sexton makes it clear that some day the virgin girl will meet the queen's fate: "Meanwhile Snow White held court,/ rolling her china-blue eyes open and shut/ and sometimes referring to her mirror/ as women do."
The lesbian implications of "Rapunzel" are brought to the fore, and the transvestite deception of "Little Red Riding Hood" is remarked on. Sexton crashes the dreamy romance of Cinderella with the mundane reality of marriage. "Happily ever after" is contrasted with "diapers...arguing...getting a middle-aged spread." The Freudian power of mother is accented in the poet's take on "Hansel and Gretel"; Sexton brings out dark implications of child murder and pedophilia that the original tale merely glosses.
Twenty years before Robert Bly tackled the "Iron John" fairy tale, Sexton put her spin on it, stressing the main character's cannibalism and outcast status. She compares the hairy wild man to a string of deeply troubled characters from her imagination. It is here where her poetry reaches the peak of its intensity: "A lunatic wearing that strait jacket/ like a sleeveless sweater, singing to the wall like Muzak.../ And if they stripped him bare/ he would fasten his hands around your throat/ After that he would take your corpse/ and deposit his sperm in three orifices./ You know, I know,/ you'd run away."
Sexton's deep-delving into childhood stories, unearthing the very real and plausible taboos they skirt, is refreshing. Her anachronistic use of modern language (Muzak, for instance) is artful and effective. The best thing about this book, however, is that so much madness and sadness is surmised from such timeless and appealing stories. Happy endings are left intact but with a shadow cast over them. Sexton is a poet of the dark--with no one to save her "from the awful babble of that calling."
Rating: 5
Summary: Beautifully-crafted fairy tale variations
Comment: In all my readings of fairy tale variations, this has to be one of the best. Anne Sexton takes a grim and twisted approach to the already grim and twisted versions of the Grimm Brothers.
Of course, these poems are simply an extension of Anne Sexton's already established confessional form, but poetry is, first and foremost, an expression of society. These poems fail to remain part of Sexton's inner turmoil. Rather, they mock society and the roles that women are traditionally placed within fairy tales. Anne Sexton, in an example here, uses anachronisms to reach her audience, making references to popular culture.
The Queen Cried two pails of sea water. She was as persistent as a Jehovah's Witness.
Anne Sexton, "Rumpelstiltskin"
Although Sexton's poems are not suitable for an audience of children, they do serve as interesting, even necessary reading, once a child has matured and read beyond the traditional fairy tales that are 'suitable' for kids.
Rating: 5
Summary: Sexton's Transforming Take on Grimm is Fascinating
Comment: I teach Anne Sexton in my freshman College English class and I work specifically from this text because the stories are at once familiar shared traditions and disturbing alterations of those traditions. The 18 year olds I teach, who only know fairy tales from the white-washed Disney versions, are intrigued by these dark and psychological interpretations. For the fairy tale afficianado these poems are a must read.
 |
Title: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter ISBN: 014017821X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1990 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
 |
Title: The Classic Fairy Tales: Texts, Criticism (Norton Critical Edition) by Maria M. Tatar ISBN: 0393972771 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: November, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.35 |
 |
Title: Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes ISBN: 0374525870 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 30 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: The Metamorphosis: Translation Backgrounds and Contexts Criticism (Norton Critical Edition) by Franz Kafka, Stanley Corngold ISBN: 0393967972 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: May, 1996 List Price(USD): $8.55 |
 |
Title: The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm (Norton Critical Editions) by Jack Zipes ISBN: 039397636X Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.65 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
