Victorian writers often claimed that the press was killing the fairy tale. In fact, it ensured the genre's popularity, bringing literary tales and folklore to the first mass readerships. Exploring penny weeklies, adult and children's monthlies, little magazines and the labour press, this innovative study is the first to combine media and fairy tale history. Bringing reading communities back into focus, Sumpter explores ingenious political uses of the fairy tale: in debates over socialism, evolution and race, and in the context of women's rights, decadence and gay culture. The book offers new insights into the popularisation of folklore and comparative science, and also recovers neglected visual material. From the fantasies of Kingsley, MacDonald and J. H. Ewing to the writings of Keir Hardie, Laurence Housman and Yeats, Sumpter reveals that the fairy tale was intimately shaped by the press, and that both were at the heart of nineteenth-century culture.
Short listed for the Katharine Briggs Award 2009
'The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale fills a major gap in the study of the literary fairy tale, and it fills the gap extremely well. Sumpter has a profound understanding and comprehensive knowledge of the periodical fairy tales published in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and she provides interesting analyses of the tales as well as the social history behind them and the authors engaged in writing and editing these unusual narratives. Her work is definitely unique and will make a major contribution to our knowledge about the social history of the fairy tale.' - Professor Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Serializing Scheherazade: An Alternative History of the Fairy Tale
Myths of Origin: Folktale Scholarship and Fictional Invention in Magazines for Children
Science and Superstition, Realism and Romance: Fairy Tale and Fantasy in the Adult Shilling Monthly
'I wonder were the fairies Socialists?': The Politics of the Fairy Tale in the 1890s Labour Press
'All art is once surface and symbol': Fairy Tales and the Fin-de-Siècle Little Magazines
Conclusion: Myth in the Marketplace
Notes
Bibliography
Index
CAROLINE SUMPTER is Lecturer in English at Queen's University, Belfast, UK.
Description
Victorian writers often claimed that the press was killing the fairy tale. In fact, it ensured the genre's popularity, bringing literary tales and folklore to the first mass readerships. Exploring penny weeklies, adult and children's monthlies, little magazines and the labour press, this innovative study is the first to combine media and fairy tale history. Bringing reading communities back into focus, Sumpter explores ingenious political uses of the fairy tale: in debates over socialism, evolution and race, and in the context of women's rights, decadence and gay culture. The book offers new insights into the popularisation of folklore and comparative science, and also recovers neglected visual material. From the fantasies of Kingsley, MacDonald and J. H. Ewing to the writings of Keir Hardie, Laurence Housman and Yeats, Sumpter reveals that the fairy tale was intimately shaped by the press, and that both were at the heart of nineteenth-century culture.
Reviews
Short listed for the Katharine Briggs Award 2009
'The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale fills a major gap in the study of the literary fairy tale, and it fills the gap extremely well. Sumpter has a profound understanding and comprehensive knowledge of the periodical fairy tales published in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and she provides interesting analyses of the tales as well as the social history behind them and the authors engaged in writing and editing these unusual narratives. Her work is definitely unique and will make a major contribution to our knowledge about the social history of the fairy tale.' - Professor Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Serializing Scheherazade: An Alternative History of the Fairy Tale
Myths of Origin: Folktale Scholarship and Fictional Invention in Magazines for Children
Science and Superstition, Realism and Romance: Fairy Tale and Fantasy in the Adult Shilling Monthly
'I wonder were the fairies Socialists?': The Politics of the Fairy Tale in the 1890s Labour Press
'All art is once surface and symbol': Fairy Tales and the Fin-de-Siècle Little Magazines
Conclusion: Myth in the Marketplace
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Authors
CAROLINE SUMPTER is Lecturer in English at Queen's University, Belfast, UK.
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