#RecommendedResistanceReads: Kate Forsyth's 'The Beast's Garden'

'Ava fell in love the night the Nazis first showed their true nature to the world .' 

A retelling of the Grimms' Beauty and The Beast, set in Nazi Germany.

Readers of this blog will be aware of our admiration for Kate Forsyth's writing and unique use of fairy tales in her historical fiction, but this novel is especially appropriate for our #recommendedresistancereads (#RRR) theme at this time.

The Beast's Garden is more than a retelling of the fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast. It's a great book of inspiration and bravery. Ava's story, though fiction, rings with the truth of so many real lives. Perhaps those fictitious characters resisting (from the Gestapo to despair) did only one of these brave acts, perhaps they did many, but don't be fooled by the label of 'fiction' here. Throughout the pages are many TRUE stories, and the names and actions of real people, as historical records can testify to. Their stories join them to each other, and, now in 2017, as so many reach for inspiration, it joins us to them.

Here is Kate's summary for the novel, from her blog:

THE BEAST’S GARDEN is a retelling of the Grimm’s Beauty and The Beast set in Nazi Germany. Ava is a young woman who marries a Nazi officer in order to save her father, but she hates and fears her new husband and the regime for which he works. 

She becomes involved with an underground resistance movement in Berlin called the Red Orchestra, made up of artists, writers, diplomats and journalists, who pass on intelligence to the American embassy, distribute leaflets encouraging opposition to Hitler, and help people in danger from the Nazis to escape the country.  

Gradually Ava comes to realise that her husband Leo is part of a dangerous military conspiracy that plans to assassinate Hitler. As Berlin is bombed into ruins, and the Gestapo ruthlessly hunt down all resistance to Nazism, Ava unwittingly betrays Leo.  

When the Valkyrie plot fails, Leo is arrested and Ava must flee.  

Living hand-to-mouth in the rubble of Berlin, she must find some way to rescue her husband before he and his fellow conspirators are executed. 

The Beast’s Garden is a compelling and beautiful love story, filled with drama, intrigue and heartbreak, taking place between Kristallnacht in late 1938 and the fall of Berlin in 1945.  

As a bonus, on her blog, Kate has linked folks to some wonderful resources. One of our favorites is a Pinterest board of photos of people, many of them women, in the German Resistance Movement during WWII.

You can find that fascinating resource HERE.

Update: As this post was about to go live, Kate posted a special article on her blog, paying tribute to the women of the underground German Resistance in honor of International Women's Day. I'm inserting the link here, because her research on these women, and whose very real stories she expertly wove into the tapestry of The Beast's Garden, is one of the reasons it's in our recommended reads as we navigate the beginning of 2017 and all its personal and political challenges. The book is both mythic with the fairy tale resonance of timeless truths, and grounded in the inspiring true stories of amazing people who did their part to stand against tyranny, despite their fear and risk to their lives. You can read her fascinating spotlight HERE.

A bonus for fairy tale folk is that Kate makes wonderful use of The Singing, Springing Lark, a variation on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale that has elements of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, especially with regard to the motif of 'the search for the lost/ disappeared bridegroom'. It turns out, this variant, fits beautifully in the torn and confused surroundings of Berlin during the rise to power of the Third Reich. The parallel suggests us the connection to stories both past and present, and sections of the novel are indicated with text extracts from the fairy tale, bringing a different light to both tale and history.

The Grimm Brothers published a beautiful version of the Beauty & the Beast tale called ‘The Singing, Springing Lark' in 1819. It combines the well-known story of a daughter who marries a beast in order to save her father with another key fairy tale motif, the search for the lost bridegroom. In ‘The Singing, Springing Lark,' the daughter grows to love her beast but unwittingly betrays him and he is turned into a dove. She follows the trail of blood and white feathers he leaves behind him for seven years, and, when she loses the trail, seeks help from the sun, the moon, and the four winds. Eventually she battles an evil enchantress and saves her husband, breaking the enchantment and turning him back into a man.  

(In 'The Beast's Garden') a young woman marries a Nazi officer in order to save her father, but fears her new husband and the regime for which he works... (from Random House)

It's a daunting task to please readers after garnering a huge award, as Bitter Greens did (her historical fiction retelling of Rapunzel, which won the ALA for 2014), but once again, the deftly woven historical details anchoring the romance, edged with the ring of true stories from inspiring and real people living at that time, has received much praise. Here are just a few:

"Set in World War II, this retelling of Beauty of The Beast will set your emotions on edge. Set against a tumultuous backdrop of the Nazi regime, the choices made by these characters will set them on a path that cannot be undone. Stunningly written, The Beast's Garden explores the transformation of people as their morals are tested while evil rules supreme on every front. A beautiful novel that easily stands up against so many others set in the same era." Dymocks Chermside 

‘Skillfully crafted, The Beast’s Garden is another magnificent historical novel seamlessly melding truth and fiction, from Kate Forsyth. A wonderful tale of daring and courage, of struggle and survival, of love and loyalty, this is a ‘must read’. Book’d Out 

‘Intensely emotional and stunningly written, The Beast's Garden is a must-read. It has definitely made an impact on me, and I couldn't stop thinking about it for days afterwards, If you're a historical fiction fan and love an enthralling story, then this is for you. You won't regret it.’ Genie In a Book

Needless to say (but we will anyway) this book is highly recommended - both as a fairy tale retelling and as a wonderfully researched and written story that explores history, bravery and aspects of these fairy tales in a different context. It's also a novel that is currently very relevant and can speak to the fears and hopes we carry today.

For all the wonderful things this novel offers, this is the one we treasure most: that we must keep sharing stories. To do so is to link to the strength of the many who've gone before, the many who have stood against the storm, the many who right now do the same; the many who find, as they join hands, that they still can love, still create and still live - truly live. And so can we.

Thank you, Kate. It's a book to treasure.

Illustration: 'La Belle et la Bête' illustrated by Emilie Etienne

"A forest, a forgotten castle, 

a girl in the dark, A beast that screams ... 

"Once upon a time", tell tales, 

Yes, If you listen carefully, it is always a time ... 

Beauty and the Beast ... "

This beautiful and unusually illustrated French version of Beauty and the Beast hasn't had as much exposure as it should. Although it was released in 2004, no doubt the upcoming Disney live action movie will boost interest in all things Beauty and the Beast, and this should be one of them.

In the dreamy doll depictions of Emilie Etienne, the delicate and three dimensional aspect bring a different perspective to the tale than one usually sees. The photography makes great use of lighting and alternate focus points to add to the dreamlike aspects, giving the sense that there is movement within the images - perhaps a strand of Belle's hair loose in the wind, or that the Beast's eyes are about to blink. It's very effective, even in the few images available online.

The volume itself is also a lovely and artful presentation, ornate and with deep rich colors, perfect for enchanted collections of books.

Although it's not always readily available, this book is worth hunting down to add to your fairy tale library.

Here's the description from Amazon France:

Come indulge in the Beast to save her father, Belle ends up loving the monster which then turn out to be a handsome prince bewitched ... Everyone has one or the other adaptations of the famous tale in the form of film or cartoon. The imagined story by Mrs Beaumont became legendary. It celebrates the "inner beauty" that may exist in being the ugliest, even terrifying, and the value of those who, like Belle, know go beyond appearances. An uplifting story vocation, therefore, owes its success to the subject as to how it is treated: the marvelous is always present, and story structure, with the succession of events in which the heroine must overcome, it takes traditional stories. A beautiful text become a classic. - Pascale Wester 

Emilie Etienne's website, with her gnarled witches and other enchanted folk, can be found HERE

Virginia Lee's 'The Frog Bride'

The AFTS Member Ezine Issue 02: The Frog King, or Iron Henry, is out!

Note: If you are a registered member of the Australian Fairy Tale Society (ie your membership fees are paid up to date), and haven't yet received notice via email, along with the link and secret password, please contact the AFTS via Facebook private message HERE or email them directly at austfairytales@gmail.com. They'll hop-to-it and get your goodies to you ASAP.

We've had frog kings, frog princes and frog princesses on the brain for weeks now and in celebration of completing a great compilation of new frog-themed fairy tale works, packaged into the unique fairy tale magazine, we thought we'd share mythic artist, Virgina Lee's lovely, lovely book The Frog Bride, based on the Russian tale The Frog Tsarevna - a story we love and wish we could have explored much more in the last issue.

Here are her notes (from a couple of years ago) on her first children's book, published in 2008:

My first children’s book ‘The Frog Bride’, undertaken 7 years ago, is a shortened version of The Tsarevna Frog, a traditional Russian folk tale retold here by Antonia Barber. It features a slightly camp Prince Ivan with Princess Vassilisa, who has to take her frogskin off and put it on again, rather a lot. In this quest for true love and acceptance, Vassilisa tirelessly tries to impress and capture the hearts of the prince and the royal court by performing her magic and revealing her innate beauty, when all she really desires is to be fully accepted for her less desirable appearances and habits, frogskin and all. 

 I didn't actually write it myself but it was my choice of story. I chose it mainly because I wanted to illustrate a girl taking off a frog skin. I'm always drawn to the physical transformations in stories and what they symbolize. 

Virginia Lee put a lot of love and artistic skill into the illustrations in this book and it could use some more attention (ie. sales) to boost the demand for more gorgeous illustrated books like it.

Enjoy! (And then go grab yourself a copy, if you haven't already.)

Don't you just love the hung-up frog skin in the wardrobe? Such a lovely touch!

Note: the paperback version has this cover below.

Article: Alternate Fairy Tales for Grimm Fans in 'The Girl Who Married a Lion: And Other Tales from Africa'

This recommended collection of African fairy tales, published in 2004, is by the New York Times best selling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mystery series. The TV series adaptation is worth a look too - wonderfully shot and acted. The way the stories are presented, both in the book and on film, it's no surprise to find a collection of tales coming from the same author. Clearly one influenced the other and, although the mystery series is not an adaptation of fairy or folktales (along the lines of Once Upon A Time or NBCs Grimm) it's a wonderful study of how fairy tales, with their ability to cross genre lines often and easily, can be inspiration for other genre styles and methods of storytelling.


But we digress.

This short article by Carrie Puckette, Staff Writer for The Clarion is wonderfully succinct and an enticing introduction to this different collection of fairy tales. These ones aren't as well known as Grimm's and Perrault's but they're just as wonderful to share with families and great alternate storytelling material. We'd love to see some of these adapted for film or theater in the same way Grimm's have been.

Being such a short piece, we're sharing a large part of it.

If you like fairy tales, but you’re bored with the Brothers Grimm, you can find a new variety of fairy tales from another culture in “The Girl Who Married a Lion: And Other Tales from Africa.” 

The book is a collection of originally oral stories from Zimbabwe and Botswana as arranged by Zimbabwean author Alexander McCall Smith. 

Appropriate for all ages, this 200-page collection contains a wide range of stories, including animal stories, mystical encounters, and moral parables.
Some of the stories within include “Guinea Fowl Child,” “A Bad Way to Treat Friends,” “Sister of Bones,” “Milk Bird,” and of course, “The Girl Who Married a Lion,” and many more, depending on what type of fairy tale you like. 

You can read the rest of the short article HERE.

Thanks to NPR, you can read a preview of a few of the stories HERE.

There's also an audiobook version available to hear with a free trial HERE, which sound worth the effort, with authentic narrators and a full cast.

Fairy Tale Bonus of the Day:

An artist named Kel McDonald, created a comic version of the title story in 2013, which is worth sharing. 

Enjoy.

You can find this and many others of McDonald's comic creations HERE.

"Feather, Paws, Fins, and Claws" Illustrated by Lina Kusaite

Mentioned in our Mother Goose Refigured announcement yesterday, was the book, by the same author, titled Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy Tale Beasts. We realized we hadn't had the opportunity to post on this book and wanted to share the available artwork (of which the book has much more) by mythic artist Lina Kusaite.

Lina has a wonderful collection of these on her Behance account, showing the process of her illustrations. (And her official website has a number of other amazing looking projects which you can see HERE.) What we really like about seeing these is that her process is a for of story building and informs us about the tale even more. Here's what she has top say about being commissioned for the project:

The Maiden and the Fish

In 2013 I was invited by Jennifer Schacker and Christine A. Jones to join their project, the collection of the world fairy-tales. The collection contains of 10 different fairy tales form England, Portugal, India, North America, France, Norway, Hungary and Italy. Some of the tales are dated to 16 century. 

Once we started to chat about drawing styles, we all agreed, that it would be very interesting to create illustrations that are inspired by the country the tales are originated form and the time of its writing. Such idea required research time on cultural styles and different visual materials. This process allowed me to familiarize with some cultural aspects, that later on was used to create illustrations. All illustration where inspired, created and improvised by its countries cultural and visual styles and through my own creative processes. It was very interesting and challenging task to change the styles after every illustration.Some fairy tales were more challenging then others, like “The Rat's Wedding” - Indian tale. In the beginning I wanted to follow traditional Indian drawings, but it was so far from my own style, that I had to scale down and was following more on some details and colour combinations.

Here's the write up:

“Ballad of the Bird-Bride”

A wide variety of creatures walk, fly, leap, slither, and swim through fairy-tale history. Some marvelous animal characters are deeply inscribed in current popular culture—the beast redeemed by beauty, the wolf in pursuit of little girls and little pigs, the frog prince released from enchantment by a young princess. But like the adventures of many fairy-tale heroes, a curious reader’s exploration in the genre can yield surprises, challenges, and unexpected rewards.Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy-Tale Beasts presents lesser-known tales featuring animals both wild and gentle who appear in imaginative landscapes and enjoy a host of surprising talents. With striking original illustrations by artist Lina Kusaite and helpful introductions by fairy-tale scholars Jennifer Schacker and Christine A. Jones, the offbeat, haunting stories in this collection are rich and surprisingly relevant, demanding creative reading by audiences aged young adult and up.

"The Rat's Wedding"

“Prince Chéri”

Schacker and Jones choose stories that represent several centuries and cultural perspectives on how animals think and move. In these ten stories, rats are just as seductive as Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf; snakes find human mates; and dancing sheep and well-mannered bears blur the line between human and beast. Stories range in form from literary ballads to tales long enough to be considered short stories, and all are presented as closely as possible to their original print versions, reflecting the use of historical spelling and punctuation. Beasts move between typical animal behavior (a bird seeking to spread its wings and fly or a clever cat artfully catching its prey) and acts that seem much more human than beastly (three fastidious bears keeping a tidy home together or a snake inviting itself to the dinner table). 

Kusaite’s full-color artwork rounds out this collection, drawing imaginatively on a wide range of visual traditions—from Inuit design to the work of the British Arts and Crafts movement.

Together with the short introductions to the tales themselves, the illustrations invite readers to rediscover the fascinating world of animal fairy tales. All readers interested in storytelling, fairy-tale history, and translation will treasure this beautiful collection.

“East o’ the Sun, West o’ the Moon”

"The Story of the Three Bears"

"Nanina's Sheep"

Snake Skin

 

Babiole