Cinderella's Gold Slipper

Book excerpt: Samuel D. Fohr holds that the Grimms' tales are not just childish 'fairy tales', but are filled with spiritual symbolism, and as such have value for adults as well as children. Snow White, for example, is a story of creation and spiritual growth, and its message parallels Hindu and Judaic creation myths. Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella both portray the journey back to God. Fohr also looks at recurring themes in the stories, and answers such questions as: Why are giants always evil and dwarves always good? What is the symbolic significance of the hungry wolf who appears in many stories? Exactly what are genies, and why are they always trapped in bottles? A delightful but serious examination of cherished stories, this book reveals new meaning in familiar tales. Also included is an extensive bibliography and an Appendix on the authenticity of the Grimms' tales. The author is a professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan and has taught courses in both Western and Eastern Philosophy. He is the author of Adam and Eve: The Spiritual Symbolism of Genesis and Exodus, and editor of more than a dozen volumes of The Collected Works of Rene Guenon. To say that Fohr retrieves fairy tales from the nursery on the one hand, and retrieves them from mere entertainment for adults on the other, is only the start of the matter. Like Freud, Jung, and Levy-Strauss, he recognizes the wisdom folktales embody, but he goes beyond those students of myth in arguing that the authors knew what they were doing: they crafted their tales consciously. This is a courageous and cogent book that goes a long way toward revalidating a literary genre that modernity has irresponsibly trivialized. - Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions, etc.