Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked
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Product Description
A young scholar goes to Grandmother's house--and beyond--to uncover the surprisingly complex and contradictory morals we've learned from this seemingly simple folk tale. In Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked Catherine Orenstein reveals for the first time the intricate sexual politics, moral ambiguities, and philosophical underpinnings of Red Riding Hood's epic journey to her grandmother's house--and how, from the nursery on, fairy tales influence our view of the world. Beginning with its first publication as a cautionary tale on the perils of seduction, written in reaction to the licentiousness of the court of Louis XIV, Orenstein traces the many lives the tale has lived since then, from its appearance in modern advertisements for cosmetics and automobiles, the inspiration it brought to poets such as Anne Sexton, and its starring role in pornographic films. In Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked , Red appears as seductress, hapless victim, riot grrrrl, femme fatale, and even she-wolf, as Orenstein shows how through centuries of different guises, the story has served as a barometer of social and sexual mores pertaining to women. Full of fascinating history, generous wit, and intelligent analysis, Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked proves that the story of one young girl's trip through the woods continues to be one of our most compelling modern myths.
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Once upon a time there was a little village girl, the prettiest anyone ever saw. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Once upon a time there was a little village girl, the prettiest anyone ever saw. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Catherine Orenstein gives a truly remarkable review of the history of red riding hood. Starting with the version of Perault, she moves on to the brothers Grimm, only to go back to the oral history before Perault. Then she evaluates the function of the story in different settings and times, giving original and eye-opening opinions.
What do you think of her vision of the various Prince Charmings: necrophilic pedophiles. Pointing out that the prince of Snowwhite falls in love with her after she died and wants to share his life with a corpse, and the prince of Sleeping Beauty falls in love with her comatose body lying in a death-like state. Both ladies underaged.
An other interesting vision is her disagrement with feministes that red riding hood was raped. Yes in our perspective she is. The wolf is a sexual active male as Perault point out and Orenstein confirms with several examples. But rape didn't exist in the days of Perault. It was the father of the girl who was robbed of the chance to arrange a marriage for his daughter and make some fortune out of it.
The book is written with great insight and also humor. Highly recommended!
What do you think of her vision of the various Prince Charmings: necrophilic pedophiles. Pointing out that the prince of Snowwhite falls in love with her after she died and wants to share his life with a corpse, and the prince of Sleeping Beauty falls in love with her comatose body lying in a death-like state. Both ladies underaged.
An other interesting vision is her disagrement with feministes that red riding hood was raped. Yes in our perspective she is. The wolf is a sexual active male as Perault point out and Orenstein confirms with several examples. But rape didn't exist in the days of Perault. It was the father of the girl who was robbed of the chance to arrange a marriage for his daughter and make some fortune out of it.
The book is written with great insight and also humor. Highly recommended!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a really interesting exploration of the popular fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. It follows the evolution of the tale from Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood, to Carter's Company of Wolves and the film Freeway starring Reese Witherspoon. It shows just how much of an impact this one tale has had on our society and is entertaining and easy to read. It is a good starting point for anyone wishing to study the origins and development of Red Riding Hood or just someone wanting to learn more about it.
Format:Paperback
I have just finished reading this and I have to say it was an enjoyable and interesting mix. Mostly I could not put it down though there were rare points when I thought the author was really grasping at straws and getting too sidetracked in her point. It covers most versions of Little Red Riding Hood from the early stories- The Grandmother's Tale, Perrault's Le Petit Chaperon Rogue, the Grimm's Little Red Cap- the more adult versions by Tanith Lee and Angela Carter amongst others, several poems based of the fairytale, films- Freeway, The Company of Wolves- and adverts.
It analyses each one divided into topics including Red as a victim, a sex symbol and indeed even a villain and the wolf as a villain and a cross dresser bringing up interesting points about both characters and how the story has developed over the years turning Red from a disobedient child of warning to a brazen sex symbol who wanted the wolf to come to her or was more than capable of dealing with him.
There were many opinions and topics offered in this book, some I had never heard of or considered before, which offered for an enthralling read but there were times when I felt it could have offered more on some topics and less on others for example, when it came to The Company of Wolves and the short stories by Angela Carter it was based on I was really looking forward in the author plunging into the film, really analysing it and going into depth about the three stories, as it was both topics were mentioned by only for a couple of paragraphs, equally Tanith Lee's short story Wolfland was only loosely covered. Whereas the idea of Red Riding Hood and other fairytale heroines as fetish symbols had an entire chapter dedicated to it, which was interesting but filled more on how it was fairytales in general rather than just dealing with Red Riding Hood herself.
Overall it is a good book and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about this fairytale which has changed so much over the years, it is a tough topic to write about as there are so many different interpretations of it and there have been so many adaptations and usage of the characters that it's impossible to note and analyse every one of them and Catherine Orenstein has definitely done an admirable job with this.
It analyses each one divided into topics including Red as a victim, a sex symbol and indeed even a villain and the wolf as a villain and a cross dresser bringing up interesting points about both characters and how the story has developed over the years turning Red from a disobedient child of warning to a brazen sex symbol who wanted the wolf to come to her or was more than capable of dealing with him.
There were many opinions and topics offered in this book, some I had never heard of or considered before, which offered for an enthralling read but there were times when I felt it could have offered more on some topics and less on others for example, when it came to The Company of Wolves and the short stories by Angela Carter it was based on I was really looking forward in the author plunging into the film, really analysing it and going into depth about the three stories, as it was both topics were mentioned by only for a couple of paragraphs, equally Tanith Lee's short story Wolfland was only loosely covered. Whereas the idea of Red Riding Hood and other fairytale heroines as fetish symbols had an entire chapter dedicated to it, which was interesting but filled more on how it was fairytales in general rather than just dealing with Red Riding Hood herself.
Overall it is a good book and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about this fairytale which has changed so much over the years, it is a tough topic to write about as there are so many different interpretations of it and there have been so many adaptations and usage of the characters that it's impossible to note and analyse every one of them and Catherine Orenstein has definitely done an admirable job with this.
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