little red riding hood uncloaked by catherine orenstein

Nor does her tale encapsulate the thinking of a is not the whole truth. But some sections of the book were beautifully written-look at the end of her introduction: 'Little Red Riding Hood does not, of course, represent every woman or even an average woman, if such a woman could ever be said to exist. Usually when it comes to non-fiction, as long as you have interesting things to say and are relatively logical in how you organize and communicate your thoughts, you're good to go. This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ways that authors have played around with the characters of LRRH to subvert expectations (and not just in the last century-many of the older versions are quite different than the fairy tale many of us grew up with). Of course, I wouldn't qualify them as family friendly, although children at the time would have been exposed to it. These female characters are empowered and self-sufficient, shocking for the times. Neither is Grandma a helpless victim, but herself a sexual predator of sorts- the wolf is no match for neither of them.

Red Hot is not the innocent, sweet victim audiences had come to expect from Victorian versions-she is sexually attractive, yet very capable of taking care of herself. The wolf is horny, nothing new for us but would have been very surprising to its original audience. I've read about several of the eras of history she covers before, but she managed to provide me with new and very pertinent information about well known fairy tale authors, as well as exposing me to versions of Little Red I wasn't aware of or knew little about before.įor example, Tex Avery's cartoons featuring Little Red, such as Red Hot Riding Hood:įrom 1943, it provides a fascinating contrast to Disney's fairy tale cartoons the world was becoming familiar with. Her points shed light not only on Little Red but the other fairy tales that came from those writers, and Orenstein references many other fairy tales as she compares and contrasts Little Red with other heroines. Her histories provide enough interesting details to support her points while painting an overall picture of the culture impressive when considering the length of the book. Obviously Orenstein explores in depth the history of Little Red Riding Hood, but along the way provides historical backgrounds for some of the tale's most prominent authors-from Perrault to the brothers Grimm from medieval Europe to the first and second waves of feminism in America.

In fact, I would even categorize this in my top recommended fairy tale books.

Little red riding hood uncloaked by catherine orenstein