Today’s post is about Snow White in fiction. She does appear quite a number of times in novels and short fiction.
I can start off with a short story of my own, “Brothers”, published in an anthology of fairy tale themed stories called Mythic Resonance, which is available in ebook. It’s seen from the viewpoint of the Seven Dwarfs, and the Princess, Blanche, is a lot more intelligent than the girl in the fairy tale. They have to protect her until she is able to return to the palace, where the Queen is about to take over. She does fall under a spell, but no glass coffin, not even an apple, just a spell.
Sophie Masson’s novel Hunter’s Moon does have a glass coffin, no spoilers, but it’s not a kingdom. It’s a chain of department stores in a 19th century setting somewhere in Europe. The heroine actually admires he beautiful, elegant stepmother until she tries to kill her. A fabulous novel, very cleverly done so you can see the fairy tale it comes from.
Jim C Hines wrote a number of fairy tale novels featuring fairy tale heroines, including Snow White, who have to repair problems that happen afterwards. The first one is The Stepsister Scheme in which Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White get together to rescue the kidnapped Prince, Cinderella’s husband. Snow White wears a choker made of glass that forms the basis of her magic. Trust me, these are terrific books!
The late Tanith Lee, a British fantasy writer, wrote a collection called Red As Blood, which featured a story of the same name. All the stories in that collection twist fairy tales around, and this is no exception. Princess Bianca is a born vampire. She doesn’t have seven dwarfs but seven dwarf trees, twisted ones. The Queen, her stepmother, is not harming her but trying to save her soul. I first read it in the magazine it appeared in, but it’s worth finding the collection just for this story. The other stories are also good.
Finally in this post is a book by Neil Gaiman, with beautiful illustrations, and an audiobook/radio play of it. It’s called The Sleeper And The Spindle. It doesn’t name her, but the young queen is obviously Snow White, about to marry her prince. On the eve of her wedding, she is visited by some of the dwarfs. They tell her that weird things are happening elsewhere in the kingdom. People are falling asleep and not waking. It’s spreading and if something isn’t done, the entire kingdom is likely to sleep. They aren’t human, so not affected.
The queen kisses her prince, puts on armour, then goes with them. The sleep is connected with the story of Sleeping Beauty. I won’t tell you too much more, because spoilers, but there is a twist you might not expect. I do recommend it. In print if you can get it, because the illustrations are exquisite. But you should be able to find it in ebook. The audiobook is a play.
There is plenty more in the way of fiction based on the fairy tale, but I’ll leave it to you to find them.
There is even a list on Goodreads. Here it is.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/25937.Snow_White_Retellings
No comments:
Post a Comment