Overall, Christine Jones's book will be fascinating and worthwhile reading for anyone who is interested in the history of fairytale books. Although the author is not a folklorist, her book would make a fine resource in courses on the fairytale, whether folkloristic or literary. Bibliophiles will delight in the annotated bibliographies. And, if I do not always agree with her translation choices, I am grateful that she invites us to look over her shoulder as she works. It remains to mention the unusually fine cover illustration by Matt Saunders.
~William Hansen, Journal of Folklore Research
Jones's critical translation breathes new life into a classic work of the fairy-tale genre. Her scholarship in the introduction as well as in the textual notes are valuable for any fairy-tale scholar, and anyone interested in translation theory will also find this a compelling read. Additionally, her translations of the tales are eminently readable in clear, lively, and contemporary prose. This will surely be a prominent translation for years to come.
~James Hamby, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
This volume is at once a major new translation, an important study of Charles Perrault and his fairy tales, and a superb critical edition. Christine Jones has opened new and unexpected perspectives on stories and characters we think we know well. This is sure to be a standard reference for many years to come.
~Lewis C. Seifert, Brown University
With stories whose translation will bring pleasure to the general reader and with an introduction whose depth will instruct both beginning and learned readers, Mother Goose Refigured deserves a place on literary bookshelves everywhere.
~Ruth B. Bottigheimer, Gramarye: The Journal of the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy
From the striking cover art to the contemporary prose of the translated tales, Mother Goose Refigured challenges anachronistic readings of Perrault’s fairy tales as childish stories and reinvigorates them for twenty-first-century readers. Jones has produced a critical edition that is likely to become a classic reference for fairy tale scholars and readers.
~Bronwyn Reddan, Eighteenth-Century Fiction
This outstanding study unites translation studies, gender studies, and cultural and folklore studies. It will be invaluable for any specialist in the areas of French literature, comparative literature, and children's literature.
~Anne Cirella-Urrutia, Children's Literature Association Quarterly
In this original and bold project, Christine A. Jones invites us to rediscover Perrault's worldly, ironic, and tricky tales behind the Disneyfied stereotype. Because the mock-naïve stories fashion a complex reading experience that only appears through an understanding of the linguistic, literary, editorial, historical, biographical, and courtly contexts in which they were originally produced, Jones's erudite critical translation gives the texts new life and bite for the modern reader. Informed by book history, material culture, and translation studies, it is full of gems on hairstyles and fashion, on puns and allusions, presenting Perrault's artful tales as authored texts whose posterity owes a lot to translators, editors, illustrators, and adaptors alike.
~Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère
Christine A. Jones offers a radical vision of fairy tales that are more than three hundred years old. Combining a body of historical evidence with striking new translations, Jones reveals that stories we thought we knew are both timely and self-aware. Charles Perrault's tales are anything but stale and moralizing, his heroines far more complex than the passive beauties we have come to expect in fairy tales. Jones's groundbreaking new book is sure to become required reading for anyone with an interest in fairy tales and their place in contemporary culture.
~Jennifer Schacker