The popularity of such recent films and TV series as Cinderella, Into the Woods and “Grimm” are reminders of the enduring significance of fairy tales. As British literature scholar Marina Warner insists in her beautifully written, thought-provoking short study, fairy tales are ancient and universal. They have satirized the foolishness of society and have imaginatively conveyed philosophical and political ideas. The literature of enchantment, she argues convincingly, has been a “no less lucid mirror of mores and manners” than the novels of realism. There is no pretense of literally believing Snow White’s story, yet there is something in such tales that speaks to the possibility of malice in the human heart. And yet, Warner adds, “no power of witches or gnomes…can completely extinguish the intrinsic good of the life force that runs through nature.”
