Alan Dundes was a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. His work was said to have been central to establishing the study of folklore as an academic discipline. He wrote 12 books, both academic and popular, and edited or co-wrote two dozen more. One of his most notable articles was called "Seeing is Believing" in which he indicated that Americans value the sense of sight more than the other senses.
"Cinderella: A Casebook" is a great researched book that compare and tell all different types from all around the world. It is a great book for telling the the different elements of the story is used in each continent. However, there were a lot of footnotes and long list of citations after the chapter so beware of that besides that point I think it is a amazing book.
Even I'm surprised by how quickly I tore my way through this book. Though academically meticulous, it was also so delightfully 'readable that I had a hard time putting it down and found d myself rushing off to relish another essay or two.
Having become familiar with a few older variants of the story, I was even still surprised to learn how far back the story itself, as well as many of its motifs stretched. And, speaking of those motifs, how extensive and non-Disney they really were.
I think Alan Dundes did an excellent job collecting and annotating the included essays, I really enjoyed the [fairy tale] : a case book concept and I will be definitely be reading more in the future.
This is another, fantastically well-researched bit of socio-historical overview!
It's definitely not the kind of thing the average reader can really dig their teeth into, but it is just as certainly, a lot more accessible than a great deal of other academic work in the Folklore Field.
This is a critical starting point for anyone with an interest in how culture drives storytelling and vice-versa!