Library Essentials: Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales by Max Lüthi

Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales by Max Lüthi is today's library essential.

Description from the publisher:

This first paperback edition of the seminal work by the Swiss scholar Max Lüthi will be welcomed by folklorists for its informative survey of the various ways in which fairytales and related genres (local legends and saints’ lives) may be read.

“Lüthi’s lucid and intelligent book is refreshingly welcome.” —Sewanee Review

Table of Contents:

Introduction

1 Sleeping Beauty
The Meaning and Form of Fairy Tales

2 The Seven Sleepers
Saint’s Legend-Local Legend-Fairy Tale

3 The Dragon Slayer
The Style of the Fairy Tale

4 The Uses of Fairy Tales
Cinderella-Hansel and Gretel-The White Snake

5 The Little Earth-Cow
Symbolism in the Fairy Tale

6 The Living Doll
Local Legend and Fairy Tale

7 Animal Stories
A Glimpse of the Tales of Primitive Peoples

8 Rapunzel
The Fairy Tale as Representation of a Maturation Process

9 The Riddle Princess
Cunning, Jest and Sagacity

10 The Fairy-Tale Hero
The Image of Man in the Fairy Tale

11 The Miracle in Literature

Reference Notes
Index