Not since Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment has there been such an illuminating contribution to the world of children's fairy tales.

Annotated Classic Fairy Tales is a remarkable treasure trove, a work that celebrates the best-loved tales of childhood and presents them through the vision of Maria Tatar, a leading authority in the field of folklore and children's literature. Into the woods with Little Red Riding Hood, up the beanstalk with Jack, and down through the depths of the ocean with the Little Mermaid, this volume takes us through many of the familiar paths of our folkloric heritage.

Gathering together twenty-five of our most cherished fairy tales, including enduring classics like "Beauty and the Beast," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "The Little Mermaid," and Bluebead," Tatar expertly guides readers through the stories, exploring their historical origins, their cultural complexities, and their psychological effects. Offering new translations of the non-English stories by the likes of Hans Christian Andersen, Brothers Grimm, or Charles Perrault, Tatar captures the rhythms of oral storytelling and, with an extraordinary collection of over 300 often rare, mostly four-color paintings and drawings by celebrated illustrators such as Gustave Doré, George Cruikshank, and Maxfield Parrish, she expands our literary and visual sensibilities.

As Tatar shows, few of us are aware of how profoundly fairy tales have influenced our culture. Disseminated across a wide variety of historical and contemporary media ranging from opera and drama to cinema and advertising, they constitute a vital part of our storytelling capital. What has kept them alive over the centuries is exactly what keeps life pulsing with vitality and variety: anxieties, fears, desires, romance, passion, and love. Up close and personal, fairy tales tell us about the quest for romance and riches, for power and privilege, and, most importantly, they show us a way out of the woods back to the safety and security of home.

Challenging the notion that fairy tales should be read for their moral values and used to make good citizens of little children, Tatar demonstrates throughout how fairy tales can be seen as models for navigating reality, helping children to develop the wit and courage needed to survive in a world ruled by adults. This volume seeks to reclaim this powerful cultural legacy, presenting the stories that we all think we know while at the same time providing the historical contexts that unlock the mysteries of the tales.

The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales is a volume that will rank as one of the finest fairy tale collections in many decades, a provocative and original work to be treasured by students, parents, and children.

The Heroine with 1,001 Faces dismantles the cult of warrior heroes, revealing a secret history of heroinism at the very heart of our collective cultural imagination. Maria Tatar, a leading authority on fairy tales and folklore, explores how heroines, rarely wielding a sword and often deprived of a pen, have flown beneath the radar even as they have been bent on redemptive missions. Deploying domestic crafts and using words as weapons, they have found ways to survive assaults and rescue others from harm, all while repairing the fraying edges in the fabric of their social worlds. Like the tongueless Philomela, who spins the tale of her rape into a tapestry, or Arachne, who portrays the misdeeds of the gods, they have discovered instruments for securing fairness in the storytelling circles where so-called women's work-spinning, mending and weaving-is carried out. In a broad-ranging volume that moves with ease from the local to the global, Tatar demonstrates how our new heroines wear their curiosity as a badge of honour rather than a mark of shame and how their "mischief making" evidences compassion and concern. The Heroine with 1,001 Faces creates a luminous arc that takes us from ancient times to the present day. It casts an unusually wide net, expanding the canon and thinking capaciously in global terms, breaking down the boundaries of genre and displaying a sovereign command of cultural context. This, then, is a historic volume that informs our present and its newfound investment in empathy and social justice like no other work of recent cultural history.

We think we know the story of Snow White from Disney and the Brothers Grimm. But acclaimed folklorist Maria Tatar reveals dazzling variations from across the globe. The story of the rivalry between a beautiful, innocent girl and her equally beautiful and cruel mother has been endlessly repeated and refashioned all over the world. In Switzerland you might hear about seven dwarfs who shelter a girl, only to be murdered by robbers. In Armenia a mother orders her husband to kill his daughter because the moon has declared her "the most beautiful of all." The Brothers Grimm gave this story the name by which we know it best, and in 1937 Walt Disney sweetened their somber version to make the first feature-length, animated fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since then the Disney film has become our cultural touchstone-the innocent heroine, her evil stepmother, the envy that divides them, and a romantic rescue from domestic drudgery and maternal persecution. But, as every fan of the story knows, there is more to Snow White than that. The magic mirror, the poisoned apple, the catatonic sleep, and the strange scene of revivification are important elements in the phantasmagoria of the Snow White universe. Maria Tatar, an acclaimed folklorist and translator, brings to life a global melodrama of mother-daughter rivalries that play out across countries and cultures.

Murder, mutilation, cannibalism, infanticide, and incest: the darker side of classic fairy tales figures as the subject matter for this intriguing study of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Nursery and Household Tales. This updated and expanded second edition includes a new preface and an appendix containing new translations of six tales, along with commentary by Maria Tatar. Throughout the book, Tatar skillfully employs the tools not only of a psychoanalyst but also of a folklorist, literary critic, and historian to examine the harsher aspects of these stories. She presents new interpretations of the powerful stories in this worldwide best-selling book. Few studies have been written in English on these tales, and none has probed their allegedly happy endings so thoroughly.

"With her trademark brio and deep-tissue understanding, Maria Tatar opens the glass casket on this undying story, which retains its power to charm twenty-one times, and counting." -Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked The story of the rivalry between a beautiful, innocent girl and her cruel and jealous mother has been endlessly repeated and refashioned all over the world. The Brothers Grimm gave this story the name by which we know it best, and in 1937 Walt Disney sweetened their somber version to make the first feature-length, animated fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since then, the Disney film has become our cultural touchstone-the innocent heroine, her evil stepmother, the envy that divides them, and a romantic rescue from domestic drudgery and maternal persecution. But each culture has its own way of telling this story of jealousy and competition. An acclaimed folklorist, Maria Tatar brings to life a global melodrama of mother-daughter rivalries that play out in unforgettable variations across countries and cultures. "Fascinating...A strange, beguiling history of stories about beauty, jealousy, and maternal persecution." -Wall Street Journal "Is the story of Snow White the cruelest, the deepest, the strangest, the most mythopoeic of them all?...Tatar trains a keen eye on the appeal of the bitter conflict between women at the heart of the tale...a feast of rich thoughts...An exciting and authoritative anthology from the wisest good fairy in the world of the fairy tale." -Marina Warner "The inimitable Maria Tatar offers us a maze of mothers and daughters and within that glorious tangle an archetype with far more meaning than we imagine when we say 'Snow White.'" -Honor Moore "Shocking yet familiar, these stories...retain the secret whisper of storytelling. This is a properly magical, erudite book." -Literary Review

One hundred years after J. M. Barrie published the novel Peter and Wendy, Maria Tatar revisits a story that, like Alice in Wonderland, bridges the generations, animating both adults and children with its kinetic energy. The adventures of the Darling children with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell in Neverland are the seminal tale of escape and fantasy. Inspired by Barrie's real-life adventures with the five Llewelyn Davies boys he adopted, the story of Peter Pan has a deep and controversial history of its own that comes alive in Tatar's new edition. This brilliantly designed volume with period photographs, full-color images by iconic illustrators, commentary on stage and screen versions, and an array of supplementary material, including Barrie's screenplay for a silent film will draw readers into worlds of incandescent beauty, flooding them with the radiance of childhood wonder and the poignancy of what we lose when we grow up."

How do we explain our newfound cultural investment in empathy and social justice? For decades, Joseph Campbell had defined our cultural aspirations in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, emphasising the value of seeking glory and earning immortality. His work became the playbook for Hollywood, with its many male-centric quest narratives. Unsatisfied with Campbell's once-canonical work, Maria Tatar explores how heroines, rarely wielding a sword and deprived of a pen, have flown beneath the radar even as they have been bent on social missions. Using the domestic arts and storytelling skills, they have displayed audacity, curiosity and care as they struggled to survive and change the reigning culture. Animating figures from Ovid's Philomela, her tongue severed yet still weaving a tale about sexual assault, to Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander, a high-tech wizard seeking justice for victims of a serial killer, The Heroine with 1,001 Faces creates a luminous arc that takes us from ancient times to the present.

Fairy tales have never known geographical, disciplinary, or cultural borders. In many ways, they provide a model for thinking about storytelling on a transnational level long before comparative literature began transforming itself into world literature. As the simple expression of complex thought, fairy tales have increasingly become the focus of intense scholarly inquiry. In this Companion, international scholars from a range of academic disciplines explore the historical origins, cultural dissemination, and psychological power of fairy stories, and offer model interpretations of tales from a variety of traditions and sources, including Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and the One Thousand and One Nights. Rather than disenchanting the stories, the essays in this volume broaden our understanding of them and deepen our appreciation of the cultural work they do. A chronology and guide to further reading contribute to the usefulness of the volume for students and scholars.

Fairy tales have never known geographical, disciplinary, or cultural borders. In many ways, they provide a model for thinking about storytelling on a transnational level long before comparative literature began transforming itself into world literature. As the simple expression of complex thought, fairy tales have increasingly become the focus of intense scholarly inquiry. In this Companion, international scholars from a range of academic disciplines explore the historical origins, cultural dissemination, and psychological power of fairy stories, and offer model interpretations of tales from a variety of traditions and sources, including Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and the One Thousand and One Nights. Rather than disenchanting the stories, the essays in this volume broaden our understanding of them and deepen our appreciation of the cultural work they do. A chronology and guide to further reading contribute to the usefulness of the volume for students and scholars.

Our worldwide storytelling heritage is vast and varied and yet contains common threads, themes and motifs running throughout the many legends, whether they hail from the dusty plains of Africa or the cherry-blossom-blanketed hills of Japan. This astonishing anthology, in Flame Tree's covetable series of myths and tales, gathers together the most iconic and entertaining tales of adventure and daring from around the world. From Perseus the Gorgon-Slayer of Greek myhology, and the exploits of Frithiof the Bold of Norse saga fame, to the tragic tale of Irish heroine Deirdre, these exciting stories vibrate with the heart and soul of age-old narrative. An extended introduction is followed by four main sections, with mythic stories from Mexico, Egypt, India and more: Tales of Warriors, Travel & Adventure; Heroes & Heroines in Literature & Poetry; Legends of the Gods, Demigods & Culture Heroes; Leading Ladies & Affairs of the Heart.

Murder, mutilation, cannibalism, infanticide, and incest: the darker side of classic fairy tales is the subject of this groundbreaking and intriguing study of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Nursery and Household Tales. This expanded edition includes a new preface and an appendix featuring translations of six tales with commentary by Maria Tatar. Throughout the book, Tatar draws on the disciplinary tools of psychoanalysis and folklore while also providing historical context to explore the harsher aspects of these stories, presenting new interpretations of tales that engage in a kind of cultural repetition compulsion. No other book so thoroughly challenges us to rethink the happily-ever-after of these classic stories.

The New Annotated African American Folktales revolutionises the canon like no other volume. Henry Louis Gates Jr and Maria Tatar assemble a ground-breaking collection of folktales, myths and legends that revitalise a vibrant African American past. Beginning with introductory essays and 20 seminal African tales, Gates and Tatar present nearly 150 African American stories, among them familiar Brer Rabbit classics but also stories like "Witches Who Ride", out-of-print tales from the Southern Workman and stories that bring Caribbean and Latin American literature in to the canon.

Originally issued in 1934, "The Fairies Return" was the first collection of modernist fairy tales ever published in England, and it marked the arrival of a satirical classic that has never been surpassed. Even today, this reimagining of fourteen timeless tales--from "Puss in Boots" to "Little Red Riding Hood"--is still fresh and bold, giving readers a world steeped not in once upon a time, but in the here and now.

Longtime favorites in this playfully subversive collection are retold for modern times and mature sensibilities. In "Jack the Giant Killer," Jack becomes a trickster who must deliver England from the hands of three ogres after a failed government inquiry. "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" is set in contemporary London and the world of financial margins and mergers. In "The Little Mermaid," a young Canadian girl with breathtaking swimming skills is lured by the temptations of Hollywood. And Cinderella becomes a spinster and holy woman, creating a very different happily ever after. These tales expose social anxieties, political corruption, predatory economic behavior, and destructive appetites even as they express hope for a better world. A new introduction from esteemed fairy-tale scholar Maria Tatar puts the collection in context.

From stockbrokers and socialites to shopkeepers and writers, the characters in "The Fairies Return" face contemporary challenges while living in the magical world of fairy tales.

Of all of the rich fairy-tale collections that exist in countries throughout the world, few are better known than those gathered almost two centuries ago by a pair of German brothers-Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm-in their Children's Stories and Household Tales, first published in 1812. Endlessly recast and reimagined in poetry and prose, on the screen and onstage, these stories are forever etched in our imagination. Here, in this bicentennial edition of The Annotated Brothers Grimm, Maria Tatar presents these timeless stories in a sumptuous and visually powerful format that helps reshape our understanding of the Brothers Grimm. Drawing from the final authoritative version in the mid-nineteenth century, Tatar, an internationally recognized scholar in the field of folklore and children's literature, has translated and provided commentary for more than fifty Grimm stories, judiciously selecting tales that resonate with modern audiences and reveal the broad thematic range of the Grimm canon. Readers young and old will encounter popular classics, including "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Rapunzel," while discovering some of the lesser known yet equally captivating stories such as "Four Artful Brothers," "The Water of Life," and "The White Snake," all new to this edition. Perhaps most noteworthy is Tatar's decision to include tales excised from later editions, including a number of "adult" stories that were removed once the Grimms realized that parents were reading the stories to children. Tatar's own translations are accompanied by insightful annotations that search for origins, uncover cultural complexities, and explore psychological effects. Nearly two hundred images of exquisite beauty, many of them new to this edition-by artists such as George Cruikshank, Gustave Dore, Kay Nielsen, and Arthur Rackham-are reproduced alongside the stories. With a brilliant introductory essay by A. S. Byatt, along with the Grimms' original prefaces to their editions, a collection of reminiscences about "The Magic of Fairy Tales," and essays on the lives of the Brothers Grimm and the cultural impact of their tales, The Annotated Brothers Grimm captures the magical appeal of the tales while also unlocking their potent mysteries. In the tradition of Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment, this volume shows how the Grimms' fairy tales animate our imaginations and remain with us long after we have put them aside. The Bicentennial Edition of The Annotated Brothers Grimm offers a treasury of cultural lore and wisdom that has been passed on from one generation to the next.

A compelling set of short stories from the author of World War I classic, All Quiet on the Western Front German-American novelist Erich Maria Remarque captured the emotional anguish of a generation in his World War I masterpiece, All Quiet on the Western Front, as well as in an impressive selection of novels, plays, and short stories. This exquisite collection revives Remarque's unforgettable voice, presenting a series of short stories that have long ago faded from public memory. From the haunting description of an abandoned battlefield to the pain of losing a loved one in the war to soldiers' struggles with what we now recognize as PTSD, the stories offer an unflinching glimpse into the physical, emotional, and even spiritual implications of World War I. In this collection, we follow the trials of naive war widow Annette Stoll, reflect on the power of small acts of kindness toward a dying soldier, and join Johann Bartok, a weary prisoner of war, in his struggle to reunite with his wife. Although a century has passed since the end of the Great War, Remarque's writing offers a timeless reflection on the many costs of war. Eight Stories offers a beautiful tribute to the pain that war inflicts on soldiers and civilians alike, and resurrects the work of a master author whose legacy - like the war itself - will endure for generations to come.

This Norton Critical Edition collects seven different tale types, including multicultural versions and literary rescriptings. Along with the introductions and annotations by Maria Tatar are twenty-four critical essays exploring the various aspects of fairy tales, and new interpretations. A revised and updated selected bibliography is included.

Even after two hundred years, the tales collected by the Brothers Grimm remain among our most powerful stories. Their scenes of unsparing savagery and jaw-dropping beauty remind us that fairy tales, in all their simplicity, have the power to change us. With some of the most famous stories in world literature, including "Cinderella," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Hansel and Gretel," "Snow White," as well as some less well known stories like "The Seven Ravens," this definitive collection promises to entrance readers with the strange and wonderful world of the Brothers Grimm. Maria Tatar's engaging preface provides readers with the historical and cultural context to understand what these stories meant and their contemporary resonance. Fans of all ages will be drawn to this elegant and accessible collection of stories that have cast their magical spell over children and adults alike for generations.

Franz Anton Mesmer's concept of animal magnetism exercised a profound influence on key European and American thinkers. Mesmer, who saw in his discovery the secret of health, had hoped to recover the harmony between man and nature by harnessing the power of magnetic fluids. In calling attention to the existence of a second self that surfaces in the hypnotic trance, Mesmer made his real contribution and took the first, decisive steps on the road leading to the unconscious. While most critical studies of mesmerism originate in the history of science or medicine, Maria Tatar's book takes a fresh approach by tracing the impact of mesmerism on literature. The author launches her account with a portrait of Mesmer and places his views in the context of eighteenth-century thought. She then explores the significance of Mesmer's ideas and studies their influence on nineteenth-century German, French, and American writers. In conclusion, she examines the ways in which modern authors absorbed and reshaped the mesmerist legacy bequeathed to them by earlier generations. Whether discussing the electrical energy vibrating through Kleist's dramas, the electrical heat radiating from Hoffmann's figures, the streams of magnetic fluid coursing through Balzac's novels, or the magnetic chain of humanity linking Hawthorne's characters, Professor Tatar recaptures the meaning of ideas, motifs, and metaphors often overlooked by literary critics. Her study illuminates, in a remarkable way, the subtle connections between science, psychology, and literature. Originally published in 1978. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The tale of Bluebeard's Wife--the story of a young woman who discovers that her mysterious blue-bearded husband has murdered his former spouses--no longer squares with what most parents consider good bedtime reading for their children. But the story has remained alive for adults, allowing it to lead a rich subterranean existence in novels ranging from "Jane Eyre" to "Lolita" and in films as diverse as Hitchcock's "Notorious" and Jane Campion's "The Piano."

In this fascinating work, Maria Tatar analyzes the many forms the tale of Bluebeard's Wife has taken over time, particularly in Anglo-European popular culture. It documents the fortunes of Bluebeard, his wife, and their marriage in folklore, fiction, film, and opera, showing how others took the Bluebeard theme and revived it with their own signature twists.

In some tales the wife is a deceiver; in others she is a clever investigator. Earlier ages denounced Bluebeard's wife for her "reckless curiosity" and for her "uncontrolled appetite"; our own times have turned her into something of a heroine, a woman who rescues herself--and often her marriage--through her detective work and psychological finesse. And as for Bluebeard? Once considered a one-dimensional brute, he has found renewed cultural energy both as a master criminal who kills in order to create a higher moral order and as an artist figure who must shield himself against intimacy to foster his creative powers. A brilliant account of how one classic fairy tale has been continually reincarnated, "Secrets beyond the Door" will appeal to both literary scholars and general readers.

The author Hans Christian Andersen is regarded as a national treasure by his homeland Denmark, but his popularity extends far beyond his native shores. As one of the most translated authors in the world, there are hundreds of editions of his books in many languages. He is known predominantly for his remarkable series of fairy tales, many of which remain classics today, providing both inspiration for many film versions of his famous tales, as well as new collections of his stories. Evocative and poignant, their rich narratives are hugely compelling and tend to explore morality in an accessible and thought-provoking way. He was a great admirer of Dickens, and they conducted a literary friendship for many years. This latest collection celebrates Andersen's unique literary output and gathers together a large selection of much-loved tales such as 'The Little Mermaid', 'The Emperor's New Clothes', 'The Ugly Duckling', 'The Princess and the Pea' and 'The Snow Queen'.

In a book that confronts our society's obsession with sexual violence, Maria Tatar seeks the meaning behind one of the most disturbing images of twentieth-century Western culture: the violated female corpse. This image is so prevalent in painting, literature, film, and, most recently, in mass media, that we rarely question what is at stake in its representation. Tatar, however, challenges us to consider what is taking place--both artistically and socially--in the construction and circulation of scenes depicting sexual murder. In examining images of sexual murder ("Lustmord"), she produces a riveting study of how art and murder have intersected in the sexual politics of culture from Weimar Germany to the present.

Tatar focuses attention on the politically turbulent Weimar Republic, often viewed as the birthplace of a transgressive avant-garde modernism, where representations of female sexual mutilation abound. Here a revealing episode in the gender politics of cultural production unfolds as male artists and writers, working in a society consumed by fear of outside threats, envision women as enemies that can be contained and mastered through transcendent artistic expression. Not only does Tatar show that male artists openly identified with real-life sexual murderers--George Grosz posed as Jack the Ripper in a photograph where his model and future wife was the target of his knife--but she also reveals the ways in which victims were disavowed and erased.

Tatar first analyzes actual cases of sexual murder that aroused wide public interest in Weimar Germany. She then considers how the representation of murdered women in visual and literary works functions as a strategy for managing social and sexual anxieties, and shows how violence against women can be linked to the war trauma, to urban pathologies, and to the politics of cultural production and biological reproduction.

In exploring the complex relationship between victim and agent in cases of sexual murder, Tatar explains how the roles came to be destabilized and reversed, turning the perpetrator of criminal deeds into a defenseless victim of seductive evil. Throughout the West today, the creation of similar ideological constructions still occurs in societies that have only recently begun to validate the voices of its victims. Maria Tatar's book opens up an important discussion for readers seeking to understand the forces behind sexual violence and its portrayal in the cultural media throughout this century.

In these compelling new essays, leading critics sharpen our understanding of the narrative structures that convey meaning in fiction, taking as their point of departure the narratological positions of Dorrit Cohn, Grard Genette, and Franz Stanzel. This collection demonstrates how narratology, with its attention to the modalities of presenting consciousness, offers a point of entry for scholars investigating the socio-cultural dimensions of literary representations. Drawing from a wide range of literary texts, the essays explore the borderline between fiction and history; explain how characters are constructed by both author and reader through the narration of consciousness; show how gender shapes narrative strategies ranging from the depiction of consciousness through intertextuality to the representation of the body; address issues of contingency in narrative; and present a debate on the crucial function of person in the literary text. The contributors are Stanley Corngold, Gail Finney, Kte Hamburger, Paul Michael Ltzeler, David Mickelsen, John Neubauer, Thomas Pavel, Jens Rieckmann, Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Judith Ryan, Franz Stanzel, Susan Suleiman, Maria Tatar, David Wellbery, and Larry Wolff. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In these compelling new essays, leading critics sharpen our understanding of the narrative structures that convey meaning in fiction, taking as their point of departure the narratological positions of Dorrit Cohn, Grard Genette, and Franz Stanzel. This collection demonstrates how narratology, with its attention to the modalities of presenting consciousness, offers a point of entry for scholars investigating the socio-cultural dimensions of literary representations. Drawing from a wide range of literary texts, the essays explore the borderline between fiction and history; explain how characters are constructed by both author and reader through the narration of consciousness; show how gender shapes narrative strategies ranging from the depiction of consciousness through intertextuality to the representation of the body; address issues of contingency in narrative; and present a debate on the crucial function of person in the literary text. The contributors are Stanley Corngold, Gail Finney, Kte Hamburger, Paul Michael Ltzeler, David Mickelsen, John Neubauer, Thomas Pavel, Jens Rieckmann, Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Judith Ryan, Franz Stanzel, Susan Suleiman, Maria Tatar, David Wellbery, and Larry Wolff.

Originally published in 1991.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Franz Anton Mesmer's concept of animal magnetism exercised a profound influence on key European and American thinkers. Mesmer, who saw in his discovery the secret of health, had hoped to recover the harmony between man and nature by harnessing the power of magnetic fluids. In calling attention to the existence of a second self that surfaces in the hypnotic trance, Mesmer made his real contribution and took the first, decisive steps on the road leading to the unconscious. While most critical studies of mesmerism originate in the history of science or medicine, Maria Tatar's book takes a fresh approach by tracing the impact of mesmerism on literature. The author launches her account with a portrait of Mesmer and places his views in the context of eighteenth-century thought. She then explores the significance of Mesmer's ideas and studies their influence on nineteenth-century German, French, and American writers. In conclusion, she examines the ways in which modern authors absorbed and reshaped the mesmerist legacy bequeathed to them by earlier generations. Whether discussing the electrical energy vibrating through Kleist's dramas, the electrical heat radiating from Hoffmann's figures, the streams of magnetic fluid coursing through Balzac's novels, or the magnetic chain of humanity linking Hawthorne's characters, Professor Tatar recaptures the meaning of ideas, motifs, and metaphors often overlooked by literary critics. Her study illuminates, in a remarkable way, the subtle connections between science, psychology, and literature. Originally published in 1978. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.