What is the point of fairy tales? Morals, politics, economics? Yes, but that gets us nowhere. Poetry, fantasy, romance? Why not archness, whimsy, sentiment? The poetical fairy tale, even a wry modern one like Thurber's 'The Unicorn in the Garden', is apt to be soft and sticky. The best are startling and mysterious but also commonplace. Before she died Angela Carter made a few notes for what was to be the introduction to her second collection of traditional tales. 'The unperplexedness of the story. Fairy tales - cunning and high spirits.' That comes as close as anything.

LRB 22 July 1993 | PDF Download