Beautiful Angiola: The Lost Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales of Laura Gonzenbach

by Laura Gonzenbach, Jack D. Zipes (Editor)

In one of the most startling literary discoveries of recent years, Jack Zipes has uncovered this neglected treasure trove of Sicilian folk and fairy tales. Like the Grimm brothers before her, Laura Gonzenbach, a talented Swiss-German born in Sicily, set out to gather up the tales told and retold among the peasants. Gonzenbach collected wonderful stories - some on subjects that readers will know from the Grimms or Perrault, some entirely new - and published them in German. Her early death and the destruction of her papers in the Messina earthquake of 1908 only add to the mystery behind her achievement. Beautiful Angiola is an instant a nineteenth-century collection of stories in the great tradition of fairy and folk tales now translated into English for the first time. Gonzenbach delights us with heroines and princes, sorcery and surprise, the deeds of the brave and the treacherous, and the magic of the true storyteller. The Green Bird , The Humiliated Princess , sorfarina , The Magic Cane, the Golden Donkey, and the Little Stick that Hits are titles destine to become new favourites for readers everywhere. Yet while the stories enchant us, the wry taglines with which they often end ("And so they remained rich and consoled, while we keep sitting here and are getting old") gently bring us back to earth.

Genres: Folk Tales, Short Stories, Fairy Tales

628 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2003

Reviews

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A selection of fairy tales from a pioneer in the field of collecting Italian fairy tales. Translated from -- High German, alas, since she published in it, and her original notes were lost in an earthquake.

A few tales of sillies and others of scoundrels, but a mix of odd tales and specifically Sicilian variants on well-known tale types. There's a tale where a prince marries a woman who had slapped them when they were both children and in revenge keeps her in a well -- and she gets ahead of him to the three cities he visits, and they have three children before she reveals the truth. Don Giovanni de la Fortune makes a deal with a devil -- and both he and the Devil end up happy. The Daughter of the Sun shows off her magical powers and her rivals keep foolishly trying to do the same. "Rags and Leaves" is an odd one: usually when you have three daughters and a son, it's the son who's the hero, but here the youngest daughter is, and faces the problem of how her husband is to be selected, and then one of dreams. And a lot of other interesting ones.

A lot of them end with a bitter couplet, to the effect that they got to live happily ever after, while we live on in poverty.

[Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply beautiful fairy tales! Perfect for bedtime (:

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are some seriously dark and twisted tales. Perfect bedtime stories.
A lot of repitition, but I guess that's consistant with the oral tradition.