Once upon a time: the forgotten female fabulists whose heroines flipped the fairy tale script.

People often associate fairy tales with Disney films and with the male authors from whom Disney often drew inspiration--notably Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen. In these portrayals, the princess is a passive, compliant figure. By contrast, The Lost Princess shows that classic fairy tales such as ＂Cinderella,＂ ＂Rapunzel,＂ and ＂Beauty and the Beast＂ have a much richer, more complex history than Disney’s saccharine depictions. Anne E. Duggan recovers the voices of women writers such as Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, Marie-Jeanne L’Héritier, and Charlotte-Rose de La Force, who penned popular tales about ogre-killing, pregnant, cross-dressing, dynamic heroines who saved the day. This new history will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about the lost, plucky heroines of historic fairy tales.