Forbidden Journeys: Fairy Tales and Fantasies by Victorian Women Writers

by Nina Auerbach (Editor), U.C. Knoepflmacher (Editor)

As these eleven dark and wild stories demonstrate, fairy tales by Victorian women constitute a distinct literary tradition, one startlingly subversive of the society that fostered it. From Anne Thackeray Ritchie's adaptations of "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" to Christina Rossetti's unsettling antifantasies in Speaking Likenesses , these are breathtaking acts of imaginative freedom, by turns amusing, charming, and disturbing. Besides their social and historical implications, they are extraordinary stories, full of strange delights for readers of any age.

" Forbidden Journeys is not only a darkly entertaining book to read for the fantasies and anti-fantasies told, but also is a significant contribution to nineteenth-century cultural history, and especially feminist studies."— United Press International

"A service to feminists, to Victorian Studies, to children's literature and to children."—Beverly Lyon Clark, Women's Review of Books

"These are stories to laugh over, cheer at, celebrate, and wince at. . . . Forbidden Journeys is a welcome reminder that rebellion was still possible, and the editors' intelligent and fascinating commentary reveals ways in which these stories defied the Victorian patriarchy."—Allyson F. McGill, Belles Lettres 

Genres: Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Short Stories, Anthologies, Classics, Fiction, Feminism

380 pages, Paperback

First published June 8, 1992

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a collection of fairy and fantasy tales by nineteenth-century women, accompanied by an introductory essay on the genre. It would be a good text for a course on gender or 19th-century lit, but is also perfectly accessible for a casual reader of fairy tales.

[Madly Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

REREADING 2023-2024
THIS BOOK IS ALWAYS A WINNER AND IT REALLY HOLDS UP, READ AFTER READ. I am so glad I bought it years ago. A favorite book in my Folklore and Fairy Tale collection.

Every so often, I pick up this lovely volume of tales and reread. These are fairy tales, some of them old tales refashioned by Victorian authors and some that do not reply on existing stories. The second part is purely about subversion, which is much of what some retellings are, too, if they are any good. Note: Angela Carter. The Final part of this book is devoted to two very important tales that all lovers of fantasy should read.

The Refashioned one are:
The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods and Beauty and the Beast by Anne Thackeray Ritchie. Both are gorgeous tales.
The Brown Bull of Norrows by Maria Louisa Molesworth
And lastly Amelia and the Dwarfs, a retelling of Snow White by Juliana Horatia Ewing.

Ritchie is my favorite of these, but Ewing did an interesting retelling and should be read.

The last five are some of my top favorites in Victorian Literature. I love them. Totally subversive.

Nick by Christina Rossetti
Christmas Crackers by Juliana Horatia Ewing (Awesome tale!)
Behind the White Brick by Frances Hodgson Burnett (author of The Secret Garden)
Melisande, and the story, Fortunatus Rex and Co. by Edith Nesbit (Great work)

I originally bought this edition of Victorian Fairy Tales for these two stories.

Speaking Likenesses by Christina Rossetti (I study her.)
And the gorgeous Mopsa the Fairy by Jean Ingelow.

Jean Ingelow's story was a surprise "hit" for me and I often reread it by itself. It's the best story in this entire volume and a true wonder coming from a woman in Victorian times. The fact that we know so little of it as we do Alice in Wonderland and other fantastical stories is a true shame. Read it.

This is a beloved book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technically speaking, this is really two books - a selection of short stories by Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Christina Rosetti, Mrs. Molesworth, and E. Nesbit and a fantasy novel reprinted in its entirety by Jean Ingellow, Mopsa the Fairy. If Lewis Carroll and/or George MacDonald are the only way you know Victorian children's literature, than this really is a great introduction to the wider world of it. Both MacDonald and Carroll tended to idealize little girls (Carroll moreso, and even he wasn't as guilty of it as Hans Christian Andersen), and these authors do not take that track - instead they write of childhoods more gritty and realistic, even as most of the stories involve retellings of folk or fairy tales or other fantasy elements. The contrast between Mopsa and Jack in Ingellow's novel perhaps shows this best as she grows up much faster than him and must take on responsibilities akin to those girls were expected to do while Jack returns from Fairyland and forgets all, going back to a blissful childhood. These are harsher (especially Rosetti's) than you might expect from the era that brought us the notion that childhood is sacred, but as Mark Twain said, "Sacred cows make the best hamburgers."

[Chloe H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book because I remembered a few of the stories from my course packet for an undergraduate course on fairy tales and gender, one of my favorites! The stories of Anne Thackeray Ritchie, which are fairy tales retooled as 19th century romantic comedies of manners (reminiscent of Jane Austen) are worth the price of admission. "Speaking Likenesses" by Christina Rossetti, which the editors read as a nihilistic rebuke of Lewis Carol and his myopic romanticizing of female childhood, is also stunning. There are some other great stories in here by Frances Hodgson Burnett and others as well. Unfortunately the longest piece in the anthology ("Mopsa the Fairy" by Jean Ingelow, almost a novella) was tiresome and pointless. I did feel that the editors were a little overzealous in some of their interpretations, but that's part of the fun of literary criticism I guess. These stories are remarkable and difficult to find elsewhere, so this book is a gem.

[Amy Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection, coupled with insightful commentaries by the editors on all the stories.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I'm so impressed and pleased that I finally decided to read this. Since I've become bored and slightly disgusted with current fantasy authors, I thought that this old book might be refreshing; I wasn't disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed most of the stories in this collection and I'm especially fond of the writings of Christina Rossetti.

Just a note: if 19th century women were as oppressed as modern feminists would have us believe, none of these stories would have been written or published.

[Lulu]

Nick - 1857
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood - 1866; others of hers https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
Beauty and the Beast - 1867
Mopsa the fairy- 1869
Christmas crackers - 1869
Amelia and the Dwarfs - 1870
Speaking Likenesses - 1874
The Brown Bull of Norrowa - 1879
Behind the White Brick - 1881
Melisande - 1900
Fortunatus Rex and Co. - 1901

[Nicole Perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The essays by the editors were far more engaging than the bulk of the stories. A few stories were original and enchanting, but sadly, most of them were 'reworkings' of older tales that the Victorian era writers just modernized to their society.

[Xuyixu · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic