Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente

Since I already featured her other new book, I shouldn't ignore this one. Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente was released in late March and slipped past my radar until now. (I really have been very, very busy with my own books!) This one is fascinating because Valente draws inspiration from multiple Russian fairy tales and folklore figures, including Baba Yaya, Maria Morevna and Koschei the Deathless. No, I haven't read it, but Russian folklore is a great resource and I look forward to when I read this one and see how Valente has played with the story.
Book description from the publisher:

Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.

Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.

Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (Kindle edition, too) is scheduled to be released next week, but it is already shipping. The reviews around the web are quite wonderful of the book edition which is wonderful. If you weren't aware, the book was the first online, crowdfunded book to win a major literary award before traditional publication. In other words, it was published online first. (Another reason I find the internet and publishing trends so fascinating these days!) There is still a free preview of the first two acts of three available on her website.

The book is popular with both online reviewers and most of the traditional journals--Booklist starred it, for example. The cover is gorgeous, too. What else do you need? Oh, a description and book trailer? Here you go:

Book description from the publisher:

Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. The new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than September. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn’t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. September is already making new friends, including a book-loving Wyvern and a mysterious boy named Saturday.

With exquisite illustrations by acclaimed artist Ana Juan, Fairyland lives up to the sensation it created when the author first posted it online. For readers of all ages who love the charm of Alice in Wonderland and the soul of The Golden Compass, here is a reading experience unto itself: unforgettable, and so very beautiful.

Here is a book trailer, too, another fascinating trend in publishing.

May is Bluebeard Month

Much of this month will be devoted to Bluebeard as my newest title--Bluebeard Tales From Around the World--becomes available. I have so much material and background to share but my brain is filled with the upcoming collections. The lag time between my book editing and publication time is very short compared to most authors so I have gained much sympathy with them in their own book promotions and interviews. Most likely they are already one or two projects ahead in their brains and looking back is much harder than it appears.

As trite as it sounds, your favorite project is always the one you are currently working on since you pretty much have to be in love with it to get the work accomplished. Yes, when they are all done, there will be favorites and Bluebeard will be one of mine as well as Sleeping Beauties: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White Tales From Around the World. I know Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella which I have been working on for a long time will also be among my personal favorites, but I am enjoying them all.

I started out this book with the intention to just collect some tales, translate some more, and publish a book similar in scope to Sleeping Beauties. I had been working on the Cinderella collection for several months and suffered a semi-serious illness* with a long term recovery over the winter which fried my brain even more. I was having problems concentrating after my body was abused and this blog managed to carry on but not much else in my folkloric side of life. Cinderella, understandably considering its scope, was overwhelming me so I set it aside to work on what seemed to be a more manageable project: Bluebeard. It was simpler than Cinderella in many ways, but also more complicated.

As I read and researched Bluebeard variants rather exhaustively, I finally began to feel like my brain had returned to its pre-illness fighting stance and fell in love with the project. I found 88 tales to share, 20 of which I translated, as well as ballads. I could have stopped there. That was plenty for a book, but my research took me in many directions and I realized just how pervasive Bluebeard was in past centuries, more than I had realized. These days the average person on the street thinks the character is a legendary pirate, not a serial killer from a fairy tale. I was told as much when I read references to him many years ago and asked the grown-ups for explanations. They didn't have them. It's rather stunning how much Bluebeard has disappeared actually.

One of the most influential genres for Bluebeard was the theatre. Countless plays, operas, operettas, burlesques, etc. were produced especially in the 19th century. Then there were the short stories, poems and picture books/penny books of the tale. I didn't touch the last but it was tempting. The others I had to include to some extent. So I carefully edited and formatted six plays for the collection. I will discuss those in more detail in a future entry, but they are fascinating.

And really a great thesis is just awaiting an interested scholar. There is a wealth of material to choose from when it comes to Bluebeard. I had to limit myself to 822 pages and squeezed much room out of the space. I will be sharing some of those other great sources this month, too.

*No, nothing too horrible, just a severe case of Salmonella poisoning of all things. Not enough to complain about, but it wasn't diagnosed immediately and resulted in weeks of fevers and even more months of messed up digestion and other issues. It was the worst illness with the worst recovery problems so far of my adult life. And I'll stop there since this blog really isn't about my health issues. There are reasons these outbreaks hit the news. They can be very serious, even if you aren't a young child or elderly.

Whatever Gets You through the Night by Andrei Codrescu

 

Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments by Andrei Codrescu (Kindle edition) is a new book released this month by Princeton University Press.

All I have to share is the publisher's promotional material provided below. So there have been a lot of Arabian Nights materials released this past year. Should I devote a week to Arabian Nights? Anyone here interested in that? I haven't been able to see the BBC documentary since I am stateside but I have other materials to share.

Book description from the publisher:

"I fear each passing night that I will not receive my maintenance dose of suspense, and then I will cease to exist."--Whatever Gets You through the Night

Whatever Gets You through the Night is an irreverent and deeply funny retelling of the Arabian Nights and a wildly inspired exploration of the timeless art of storytelling. Award-winning writer Andrei Codrescu reimagines how Sheherezade saved Baghdad's virgins and her own life through a heroic feat of storytelling--one that kept the Persian king Sharyar hanging in agonizing narrative and erotic suspense for 1001 nights. For Sheherezade, the end of either suspense or curiosity means death, but Codrescu keeps both alive in this entertaining tale of how she learned to hold a king in thrall, setting with her endless invention an unsurpassable example for all storytellers across the ages. Liberated and mischievous, Codrescu's Sheherezade is as charming as she is shrewd--and so is the story Codrescu tells.

From the Inside Flap

"Like a supercomputer concealed inside an exotic, aphrodisiac fruit, Codrescu's retelling of this ancient bawdy wonderwork ends up by surprisingly calculating the future of our race."--Tom Robbins, author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
"This extraordinary rewriting of the Arabian Nights is a tour de force. Andrei Codrescu writes with verve, eloquence, and a fervent imagination."--Jack Zipes, adapter of the Signet Classics
Arabian Nights

"This is a masterpiece of storytelling that could find its place alongside the fairy-tale works of Angela Carter, Robert Coover, and Salman Rushdie. Andrei Codrescu gives readers a new and highly entertaining experience of Sheherazade and the Arabian Nights."--Donald Haase, editor of Marvels and Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies

"Andrei Codrescu's brilliant retelling of the Arabian Nights is of the same caliber as Borges's Ficciones. A pleasure to read, it has the lightness, strength, and sparkle of a spider's web."--Cristina Bacchilega, author of Postmodern Fairy Tales

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil

So did anyone see Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil  this weekend? I didn't, but I was tempted. I finally saw Jane Eyre* the weekend before which was my movie attending limit for April. The reviews weren't great for it, but not horrible either. After all, it is what it is and this isn't one that would receive strong reviews unless it snuck in a lot of clever adult humor the way Shrek did.

Here's the trailer again. I have seen a few of the commercials on tv and have giggled at them so I hope the movie sustains some of the fun.



And if you interested, Hoodwinked is a fun one and a good price right now. If I have time, I will rewatch it before I eventually see the new one because I will.

Hoodwinked (Widescreen Edition)

*And, no, although it was visually wonderful, I didn't care for this new Jane Eyre. If you want a diatribe let me know in the comments, but it wasn't my Jane Eyre and came the closest to Bluebeard of any version on film, IMHO. And even as someone who is releasing a rather large book of Bluebeard tales, that wasn't what I wanted. I had to rewatch two other versions this week--Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre, 2006) and  Jane Eyre (BBC)--to cleanse my soul.

Red Riding Hood on DVD

 

Red Riding Hood (DVD) and Red Riding Hood [Blu-ray] is now available for preorder with a June 14th release date.

And while we are here, Beastly (DVD) and Beastly [Blu-ray] is also slated for for a June 28th release date. So if you didn't see them in the theatre but still want to see them, the opportunity is fast approaching.

The prices will go down on Amazon, especially on RRH, but preordering guarantees you will get the lowest price posted between now and then. I get little rebates all the time on my preorders.

So for those of you who have perhaps seen both, which one did you prefer?

Coming Very Soon: Bluebeard Tales From Around the World

Bluebeard Tales From Around the World is almost here--in two weeks or less--and it's a monster in more ways than one. First, yes, it is about several monstrous, murderous men and some real monsters, too. And then it is physically a monster. This book comes in at an 822 page count. I didn't expect it to when I started it. Honestly, I thought it would be a little over half that, similar to Sleeping Beauties.

But then I kept researching. And reading. And thinking. And, no, I didn't put everything but the kitchen sink in here. I have many more files that were cut or omitted. But I put did put in it what fascinated me, what educated me, what entertained me.

I'm not going to copy the description down for this one because the Table of Contents alone is going to make this one of a long blog entry. To sum up, there are 88 tales, 20 of which I translated, some for the first time into English to the best of my knowledge. There are also 10 ballads as well as Hartland's original article about the tale, early academia stuff. Then I added six plays and several short stories and poems. The plays were a beast and the most unexpected, but they have played an important part of this tale's history, influencing it in ways that I haven't seen done by other theatrical productions of other tales.

So here's the Table of Contents for your viewing pleasure:

The Tales

1. Blue Beard (Lang/G.M.) France 12
2. Blue Beard (Mansion/Samber) France 18
3. Barbe Rouge France 23
4. The Girl Who Was Born with a Snake around Her Neck France 25
5. The Miller’s Daughter France 28
6. The Three Girls and the Three Cavaliers France 31
7. The Cobbler and His Three Daughters French Basque 35
8. Wine-Crust, the Blue-Beard of Flanders Belgium 37
9. The Robber Bridegroom Germany 42
10. Fitcher’s Bird Germany 46
11. The Hare’s Bride Germany 52
12. Our Lady’s Child Germany 54
13. Old Rinkrank Germany 58
14. Bluebeard Germany 61
15. The Castle of Murder Germany 63
16. The Tale of Knight Bluebeard Germany 65
17. King Bluebeard Germany 68
18. The Robber’s Bride Germany 70
19. The Robber and the Miller’s Twelve Daughters Germany 72
20. The Huntsman and the Miller’s Daughters Germany 73
21. The Castle of Robbers and Murderers Germany 75
22. Knight Goldbeard Switzerland 77
23. Luxehale’s Wives Italy 80
24. How the Devil Married Three Sisters Italy 107
25. Don Firriulieddu Italy 113
26. The Three Cauliflowers Italy 114
27. A Tuscan Bluebeard Italy 116
28. The Trimmatos; or, The Ogre with Three Eyes Greece 119
29. The Devil and the Fisherman’s Daughter Greece 126
30. The Thrice Accursed Greece 128
31. The Dragon Greece 129
32. The Story of a Turner Portugal 133
33. The Story of Mr. Fox (Halliwell) England 137
34. Mr. Fox (Chambers) England 139
35. Mr. Fox (Jacobs) England 141
36. Bloudie Jacke of Shrewsberrie, The Shropshire Bluebeard England 144
37. The Silk Nightcap England 157
38. Captain Murderer England 158
39. The Oxford Student England 161
40. Jack Otter England 162
41. The Girl Who Got Up the Tree England 163
42. The Lonton Lass England 165
43. The Lass ’At Seed Her Awn Graave Dug England 166
44. Bloody Baker England 168
45. Bobby Rag England 170
46. Mary, the Maid of the Inn England 172
47. Laula Wales 176
48. Sir John Cathcart and May Kennedy Scotland 177
49. The Widow and Her Daughters Scotland 179
50. The Poor Woman and Her Three Daughters Scotland 183
51. Peerifool Scotland 185
52. The History of Mr. Greenwood Scotland 188
53. A Giant Tricked Iceland 192
54. The Pig Denmark 199
55. The Old Dame and Her Hen Norway 203
56. The Sweetheart in the Wood Norway 208
57. The Lord of Rosendal Sweden 211
58. The Three Chests: The Story of the Wicked Old Man of the Sea Finland 213
59. Bluebeard Estonia 219
60. Greenbeard Lithuania 220
61. Maria Morevna Russia 223
62. The Bridegroom Russia 233
63. The Brigands and the Miller’s Daughter Poland 236
64. The Count’s Daughter Hungary 241
65. The Story of the Cannibal Innkeeper Romania 244
66. The Enchanted Pig Romania 246
67. Zerendac and Abu Freywar Palestine 255
68. The Robber and the Judge’s Daughter Egypt 259
69. Dodo, the Robber, and the Magic Door Nigeria 260
70. Leopard of the Fine Skin Gabon 262
71. The Spirit Who Was Cheated by the Sultan’s Son Tanzania 269
72. Irimu East Africa (Tanzania / Kenya) 272
73. The Story of the Cannibal’s Wonderful Bird South Africa 273
74. Story of the Third Calendar, Son of a King Arabian Nights 276
75. The Wimali Story Sri Lanka 285
76. Sulasa-Jataka India 287
77. The Brahman Girl That Married a Tiger India 290
78. The Tiger’s Bride India 296
79. Bopoluchi India 297
80. Jean-Parle Canada 300
81. A Pueblo Bluebeard United States 306
82. The Secret Room United States 307
83. The Devil’s Marriage United States 309
84. Blue-Beard United States 312
85. The Forbidden Chamber United States / Mexico 312
86. The Chosen Suitor British West Indies 315
87. Mr. Bluebeard Jamaica 317
88. Ímarasugssuaq, Who Ate His Wives Greenland 320

Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight
Child No. 4 Ballads

89. Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight Scotland 324
90. The Water o Wearie's Well Scotland 326
91. May Colven Scotland 328
92. May Collin Scotland 330
93. The Outlandish Knight England 334
94. The False Knight Outwitted Scotland 336
95. The Knight and the Chief’s Daughter Ireland 338
96. Pretty Colendee Missouri, United States 340
97. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight Massachusetts, United States 342
98. Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight Michigan, United States 344

Early Academia

99. The Forbidden Chamber
by E. Sidney Hartland 348
100. Who Was the Original Bluebeard? 387

Short Fiction

101. Bluebeard’s Ghost
by William Makepeace Thackeray 392
102. Barbazure
by William Makepeace Thackeray 411
103. Bluebeard’s Keys
by Anne Thackeray Ritchie 419
104. The Ogre Courting
by Juliana Horatia Ewing 473
105. The History of Bluebeard’s Six Wives
by Sabilla Novello 477
106. The Seven Wives of Bluebeard
by Anatole France 507
107. Blue Beard
by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch 523
108. Bluebeard: A Musical Fantasy
by Kate Douglas Wiggin 531
109. The True Story of Bluebeard
by Lisa Ysaye Tarleau 555

Plays

110. Bluebeard: A Dramatic Tale, In Five Acts
by Ludwig Tieck 560
111. Blue-beard; or, Female Curiosity! A Dramatick Romance
by George Colman, the Younger 591
112. Blue Beard: An Extravaganza
Very Far from the Text of George Colman
by J. R. Planché and Charles Dance 617
113. Bluebeard; or, Dangerous Curiosity and Justifiable Homicide
by Francis Egerton, Earl of Ellesmere 642
114. Barbe-Bleue: Opéra-Bouffe en Trois Actes
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy
Music by Jacques Offenbach 655
115. Ardiane and Barbe Bleue or, The Useless Deliverance
by Maurice Maeterlinck 714

Poetry

116. The Blue-Beard Chambers of the Heart
by E. Spencer Miller 760
117. Blue Beard excerpted from Bitter-Sweet
by Josiah Gilbert Holland 763
118. Blue-Beard's Closet
by Rose Terry Cooke 771
119. Blue Beard: A Comic Version
by Philip Abraham 773
120. Blue-Beard: A Poem with Tableau
by Theodore P. Cook 774
121. Bluebeard
by Hallam, Lord Tennyson 779
122. How the Helpmate of Blue-Beard Made Free with a Door
by Guy Wetmore Carryl 781
123. The Story of Blue Beard: A Student’s Ballad
by An Anonymous Elementary School Student 784
124. Bluebeard
by Edna St. Vincent Millay 788

Appendix

Bibliography of Primary Sources 790
Bibliography of Secondary Sources 796
Additional Variants Available in English 798
Tale Type Index 804
Index 807