08/08/2005 11:24 AM
Posted by VeggieSteph

Don’t Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North American and England by Jack Zipes

Don’t Bet on the Prince is a book I found back in college for my 20th Century Fiction class. Since it was a library book I had to return it, much to my disappointment. I was just recently able to find a copy on Amazon.com. It had been out of print for years and impossible to find. I am so glad I found it again, because it read just as fresh and innovative as the first time that I had read it. Some of the themes might have been discussed in other papers, books, etc. since this was originally published, but it provides a good look at what was a new and mind-bending look at the socialization of our children through the use of fairy tales.


The book is divided into four parts. The first is an introduction by Jack Zipes that describes the feminist fairy tale and its development during the course of the feminist movement. It’s a good lead in to the next two sections of actual tales, one group for the younger set and another group with more mature themes. Writers such as Margaret Atwood, Tanith Lee, Angela Carter, and Jane Yolen contributed to the fairy tales. The last section of the book is four different feminist criticisms of fairy tales.

I loved re-reading those fairy tales. My favorite is Petronella, the princess (who, in according to tradition, should have been a prince) who decides to seek her fortune and rescue a prince, since princes always seek their fortunes and save enchanted princesses. It’s full of humor and matter-of-fact homages to original fairy tales. The criticisms at the end explain much of the reasoning behind these authors and why they felt like it was important to write their own stories in the fairy tale tradition. The critique of the Little Red Riding Hood tale is especially good, with details of the original version, then the additions and changes through the years with Perault and Grimm.

I found this book to be a very good read, and not at all heavy-handed with the feminist critique. If I ever have kids, I will definitely read them some of the stories in this book (although some will have to wait until they are older). My original interest in this subject brought me to other feminist fairy tale books like The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, and lead me back to my original childhood fairy tale books by Andrew Lang (The Red Fairy Book, etc.). It has been interesting to read the Lang versions of tales and then read these. It’s quite a contrast. If you like retellings of old tales, literary criticism, feminism, or just strong female characters, you will like this collection of stories and criticism.