Won’t they be sorry for the way they treated you, once your true identity is revealed!Ĭome to think of it, this Cinderella theme comes up in all the most popular stories of our time.
You may be misunderstood, exploited, despised but in the end, all those sneering naysayers will be forced to admit that secretly you really were the bravest of heroes all along, or the most beautiful girl in the world… or just the coolest kid in school. It addresses the universal desire to be recognized for your “true”, or better, self. The reason that I chose the story of Cinderella as the starting point for my historical novel is that it is the most archetypal, and I think the most satisfying, of all the fairytales. Really! Can that kind of simplistic story fly today? There’s something wonderfully appealing about putting yourself into the shoes of someone who has been put through the wringer, but still manages to attain great wealth, gorgeous clothes, the love of a lifetime, or fame beyond her wildest dreams.īut the question that nagged at me as I was adapting the story of Cinderella was: in our cynical, unsentimental age, are happy endings still necessary? Can fairy tales be given a modern feminist twist, considering that they were first conceived many centuries ago, when a girl’s place was to be quiet, passive and obedient, and the only way out of your hopeless situation was to have a convenient fairy godmother? Given, of course, that you also possessed a sufficient dose of modesty, dazzling beauty, and unusually small feet. Once the dragon has been slain, the impossible task fulfilled, or the evil stepmother outwitted, it is the resulting relief and triumph that make for the most satisfying kind of conclusion any story can give you. One is the presence of obstacles that have to be overcome by the hero or heroine. I can’t say it’s all that surprising, given that these familiar stories set off some deep-buried recognition in the reader they ring the bell of our most primal emotions.įor a tale to ring that bell, it has to have the elements that drive the best stories.
Fairy tales have never really gone out of style, of course, but it wasn’t until I’d finished writing Slipper that I realized a whole industry in fairytale retellings of one sort or another has sprung up in the world of YA and adult literature.
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