Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture

Spells of Enchantment is an anthology of fairy tales from across Western culture, gathered and introduced by the scholar Jack Zipes. It follows the fairy tale from its roots in medieval and Renaissance Europe through the literary tales of French salons and the collections of later centuries. Voltaire is one of many authors represented, alongside storytellers such as Perrault, the Grimms and Andersen. The book offers readers a broad view of how these stories were told, changed and used to comment on society, and it shows how magic, wit and moral argument have long travelled together in the genre.