It's Mine I tell you!
Fairy Tale Queen is the type of critical book that you enjoy, yet you want more of. The thesis of this mostly excellent book is that early modern queens are influence by cultural aspects that appear surrounding queens in fairy tales.
Now, the thing I found most annoying is that many of the observations can be applied to any type of literature that appears in the Renaissance. Additionally, I would have liked to see more of a connection between historical figures such as Elizabeth I and actually fairy tale literature.
That said, there is much to like. The section about pregnancy, in particular how pregnancy in fairy tales reflected the need for offspring with queens, was rather interesting. The idea that a queen in a fairy tale who gets pregnant while alone in a garden without her husband being present as tied into the sexual promiscuity, or believed promiscuity, of real queens such as Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard was thoughtful and rather enlightening.
The best bit was about the use of Elizabeth I’s nicknames and how they tied into literature.
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