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Sleeping Beauty

Novels

    Never After, by Rebecca Lickiss: still a great book. Actually, Never After can fit in more than one category, but there is a Sleeping Beauty story, since it's pretty much the reason of the story, but be warned that there is a more-than-slight twist to the usual story!
    The Spindle's End, by Robin McKinley: quite strange book, but interesting. The twist at the end is rather surprising, but, after all, Robin McKinley is known for portraying girls able to take their future in hand!
    Princess Sonora and the long sleep, by Gail Carson Levine: my favourite yet of the Princess Tales! Sonora is amazingly funny, by the description of the fairies, the thinking of Sonora, the Brave Tall Traditional Man of Action and the nice prince!
    Beauty Sleep, by Cameron Dokey: another uncommon princess, but nevermind that! The story is very nice, especially the handling of the relationship between Aurora and her cousin Oswald, a mix between love and hate. I appreciate a lot the way the hundred years sleep was handled and the ending is very sweet.

Short Stories

    Stronger Than Time, by Patricia C. Wrede (in the anthology Black Thorn, White Rose and in Book of Enchantments): I like it very much! The sleep is still one hundred years long (well, alright, it lasted longer than that) and the prince is really determined to wake up the lovely sleeping girl. Read it, honestly.
    Somnus's Fair Maid, by Ann Elizabeth Downer (in the anthology Black Thorn, White Rose): at first, I was rather puzzled, because I didn't see at all where the Sleeping Beauty pattern was! But then, thinking again, I understood that you can use a term for a girl who didn't know much and then awake to life... Sweet story.

Movies

    Sleeping Beauty: cute. Everybody knows this Disney classic (based on the music by Tchaikovsky). For my part, I love the song Once Upon A Dream (and I guess it's the same for everybody else).

Music

    The Sleeping Beauty (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky): famous ballet and the music is beautiful; what's more, if I believe what I read (I'm not a connoisseur in ballets, unfortunately), the first apparition of Aurora is very difficult to dance.
    Into the Woods (Sondheim): like Never After, Into the Woods mixes several fairy tales, with a hint of Sleeping Beauty in the second act. She's just here to show that Cinderella's prince is not as charming as he should be.


All texts © Azrael 2005.
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