Anne Sexton breathes new life into seventeen fairy tales by the Grimm Brothers, reinventing them as poems full of contemporary references, feminist ideals and morbid humor. The poet takes these stories out of the realm of the fantastic and brings them into the everyday life. Stripping them of their magical sheen, she exposes the flawed notions of family, gender and morality within the stories, that continue to permeate our collective psyche. Sexton is especially critical of the "happily ever after" endings to these tales. Deconstructed into vivid, visceral, and often hilarious poems, these fairy tales reflect themes that have long fascinated the author: the claustrophobic anxiety of domestic life and the limited role of women in society.
