Be bold, be bold
I signed up for a wonderful project hosted by The Cheap Reader (sign up here) to start sometime early next year. It's a month long celebration of fairy tales, and each blogger will focus on one particular fairy tale. I chose the English fairy tale "Mr. Fox", a story very similar to Grimm's "The Robber Bridegroom". I chose it firstly because it was available (so many fairy tales are taken!) and secondly because the story features a spirited damsel who does come under some distress, but manages to save herself while also catching a wicked man. I'm also quite obsessed with the repeated phrases in the tale, so that is the particular reason I prefer this variant to "The Robber Bridegroom."
Be bold, be bold
But not too bold
With Project Fairy Tale, I must read the original tale, and also find three books that are retellings or spin offs to blog about. After a few days of searching, I have found that not many people have written about this fairy tale. These are the three I've sussed, and hopefully I can find some more.
This looks to be a fanciful revision of the tale, with Mr. Fox of the novel torn between his muse Mary and his wife Daphne. Oh, and Mr. Fox is a killer of women. In the stories he writes. Brilliant.
The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty
This is based on the Grimm story, but since they are so similar I would like to include it in my reading. The setting is changed to the South in the U.S. It's called a "frontier" fairy tale. Interesting.
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
The short story "The White Road" in this novel is based on "Mr. Fox" and general Bluebeard-ness. I'm looking forward to reading Neil's take, although I did read something spoilery about the ending of the story. Dang it.
