Transformations

by Anne Sexton

Overview

The poems collected in this astonishing volume are reenactments, parodies, what Anne Sexton described as transformations, of seventeen Grimm fairy tales. Includes a Foreword by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr and Drawings by Barbara Swan.

Featuring:

• "Snow White"
• "Rumpelstiltskin"
• "Rapunzel"
• "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"
• "The Frog Prince"
• "Red Riding Hood"

"Astonishingly, they are as wholly personal as Anne Sexton's most intimate poems. Her metaphoric strength has never been greater -- really funny, among other things, a dark, dark laughter" -C.K. Williams


"I asked a poet friend one time what it was that poets did, and he thought awhile and then he told me, 'They extend the language.' Anne Sexton does a deeper favor for me: she domesticates my terror, examines it and describes it, teaches it some tricks which will amuse me, then lets it gallop into my forest once more." — from the foreword by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780618083435
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/15/2001
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.39(d)

About the Author

Anne Sexton (1928-1974), the author of ten collections of poems, received the Pulitzer Prize in 1967.

Kurt Vonnegut was a master of contemporary American Literature. His black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America's attention in The Siren's of Titan in 1959 and established him as "a true artist" with Cat's Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene has declared, "one of the best living American writers."

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A funny, mad, witty, frightening, charming, haunting book."

The New York Times

"These poem-stories are a strange retelling of seventeen Grimms fairy tales, including “Snow White,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Rapunzel,” “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” “The Frog Prince,” and “Red Riding Hood.” Astonishingly, they are as wholly personal as Anne Sexton’s most intimate poems. “Her metaphoric strength has never been greater—really funny, among other things, a dark, dark laughter.”—C. K. Williams

"A vivid, astonishing, blood-curdling book."—Stanley Kunitz

"God love her."—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Editorial Reviews

"A funny, mad, witty, frightening, charming, haunting book." - The New York Times
"These poem-stories are a strange retelling of seventeen Grimms fairy tales, including “Snow White,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Rapunzel,” “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” “The Frog Prince,” and “Red Riding Hood.” Astonishingly, they are as wholly personal as Anne Sexton’s most intimate poems. “Her metaphoric strength has never been greater — really funny, among other things, a dark, dark laughter.” - C. K. Williams
"A vivid, astonishing, blood-curdling book." - Stanley Kunitz
"God love her." - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

From the Publisher

God love her.

Kurt Vonnegut

A vivid, astonishing, blood-curdling book.

Stanley Kunitz

A funny, mad, witty, frightening, charming, haunting book.

New York Times