Fairy Tales and After

Roger Sale's "Fairy Tales and After" is an excellent and entertaining collection of critical essays which evaluate important children's literature. The book is arranged in order from older material (oral tradition fairy tales, and then written tradition, including Perrault and Andersen), to the antique tradition of animal stories and fables; to complete novels, consisting among others the Alice books, Wind in the Willows, Rudyard Kipling, Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit books, and L. Frank Baum's Oz books. I find Sale's reading of fairy tales particularly insightful. Sale rejects the psychological tradition advocated by such notables as child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, and instead opts to examine the storytelling tradition that engendered these tales, the events of the tale itself, and what both teach us about the world that created these tales. The result is indeed, the best and most wonderful essay that I have ever read on oral fairy tales. Sale continues a similar examination of the written fairy tales and the books. He always seeks to look at what makes these stories "work", and what doesn't; he always looks at what is, and does not try to force his own interpretation on "hidden" meanings. The critical evaluation is also rather opinionated, and some may not like the caustic way in which he treats some old favorites (particularly Andersen and the Alice books). I personally did not mind it, because I appreciated Sale's shrewd judgment, and mostly agreed with his evaluations. I appreciated this collection of essays, and would greatly recommend it to anyone who loves Children's lit, particularly fairy tales.