Modern Fiction

by: Russell A. Peck (Author) , Martha Johnson-Olin (Author)

from: The Cinderella Bibliography  Created in 1995; ongoing

Adventures of the Beautiful Little Maid Cinderilla; or, The History of a Glass Slipper. York: J. Kendrew, 1820; 1822.

[A straight forward telling based on Perrault.]

Ahlberg, Janet. The Cinderella Show. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Viking Kestrel, 1986.

-----, and Allan. “Cinderella.” In The Jolly Postman. Boston: Little Brown, 1986.

Alcott, Louisa May. “A Modern Cinderella”, Atlantic Monthly 6, no. 36. October, 1869. Pp. 425-411; rpt. A Modern Cinderella. New York: Hurst, 1904.

[A rehearsal for “The First Wedding” chapter in Part II of Little Women (1868), with its interesting portrait of the artist sister, Laura, and the writer sister, Di, who is determined to support the family through her pen. See Griswold, Audacious Kids (p. 262, n. 14) on Cinderella details in Little Women: “The shoes by the fire remind the girls of Marmee; like Cinderella, Beth often creeps off to the hearth; Meg attends the Gardiners’ ball, has problems with her shoe, and is given a ride home in a carriage by Laurie, a prince of a fellow; at the Moffats’ party, Meg undergoes a sparkling transformation with the help of a borrowed dress and seems like ‘Cinderella’; and so on.” The story “A Modern Cinderella” was collected in Robert Brothers, Hospital Sketches and Camp and Fireside Stories (1869), and reprinted by Shealy, Stern, and Myerson, Louisa May Alcott: Selected Fiction (1990). The issue of The Atlantic Monthly in which the story originally appeared also included Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Some of the Haunts of Burns,” John Greenleaf Whittier’s “Summons,” and James Russell Lowell’s “Election.”]

Alexander, Dounne. The Black Cinderella. London: D. Alexander, 1992.

Alexander, Trisha. Cinderella Girl. New York: Silhouette Books, 1990.

[Backcover: The costume ball held all the enchantment of a fairy tale, and courtly Dusty Mitchell seemed truly a prince among men, sweeping Victoria Jones clear off her synthetic glass slippers. For a single mom used to moonlighting to make ends meet, playing princess on a moonlit veranda was breathtakingly magical ... until Victoria detected something hauntingly familiar in her mysterious cowboy’s resonant voice, and fled into the night. Left holding a solitary shoe, Dusty pursued his Cinderella with the vigor of a storybook hero. But when his quest led him to the woman who’d just put a curse on his career, he wondered if a happy ending was, indeed, the stuff of fairy tales—grim fairy tales. Flyleaf: “Wait, don’t walk off. I don’t even know your name.” Dusty grasped her hand. Her mouth curved into an impish smile. “Why, I thought you knew who I was,” she said. “A princess?” he guessed. “Only until midnight.” She smile grew more mischievous, and she lifted the hem of her satin gown, revealing shapely feet encased in clear high heels. “Ha … you’re Cinderella, glass slippers and all.” “And you are?” Dusty yielded to impulse. “Prince Charming, at your service.” At that, his warm lips met the tender underside of her wrist, and a queer breathlessness seized her. “You don’t look like Prince Charming,” she teased. “You look like a cowboy.” He chuckled, and at the warm, resonant sound, feelings that had been suppressed for so long began to stir within her. “Prince Charming is merely a state of mind,” Dusty murmered. But the story becomes complicated. Dusty is outraged when he learns that Victoria encouraged Sissy to be together with Dustin’s brother David and refuses to see her again. But David and Sissy prove to ge a good match. Dusty was clearly wrong. He humbly makes up with Victoria and the Cinderella dream comes true.]

Allison, Heather. His Cinderella Bride. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1997. Larger print edition.

[Rose Franklin was mousy, only average, but she is fed up with kissing frogs. She yearns for Prince Charming and, suddenly, she finds him - Duncan Burke, who makes everyone else fade into shadow with his lantern jaw, cleft chin, black hair, dark eyes, and the slight curl that caresses his forehead. Everyone tells her she’s out of her league. But with a new wardwobe, an overenthusiastic hairdresser, and a little help from her friends, Rose transforms into Cinderella. All she has to do is convince Prince Charming that she’s the perfect woman to fit into his life, and his heart. But Duncan loves her smile. She finds the perfect size-eight dress, and he finds the shoe that fits her. They are married in the Rice University Chapel, Rose breathtakingly radiant in her pearl-encrusted gown with the cathedral length train, and they lived happily ever after.]

Ames, Jennifer. The Reluctant Cinderella. New York: Avalon Books, 1952.

[Dust jacket: Felton’s Department Store in London occupied an entire block and, through the years, had become as much one of London’s traditions as the Houses of Parliament, or Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks. It was no small honor to the buyer of sportwear - but now an even greater distinction awaited pretty Carol Marston. After six years at Felton’s, she was about to be chosen as its exchange representative to Appleton’s magnificent New York store … From the moment she was selected, everything seemed to go wrong. First, Carol would have liked to receive the award from Jason Felton, who, as William Felton’s nephew, had every right to be managing director, a job now held by ex-efficiency expert Don Haskin, the choice of William Felton’s young widow. And when glamorous Thelma Felton hinted that she too would like to visit America, tall, good-looking Derek Appleton immediately invited her along. On the Queen Mary, Carol was amazed to find Jason Felton, traveling tourist class to accept a mysterious job as chauffeur to Julie Gallet, a Felton award winner who had done well for herself in the States - nabbing a wealthy American on her first trip over. When Carol, whose first assignment was at Appleton’s Palm Beach store, saw Julie Gallet, she knew, to her further dismay, that Jason’s new job was a dangerous one … And, to add to the mystery, who was Maxie, the gambler who seemed to rule not only Julie’s husband but a great many other people as well? And why Thelma Felton’s reluctance to visit Palm Beach - when to refuse would endanger her hold on Derek Appleton? Jennifer Ames reveals the answers, in her own fascinating way, in this intriguing story of love and adventure on Florida’s fabulous Gold Coast.]

Apollinaire, Guillaume. “La Suite de Cendrillon, ou le rat et les six lézards” (“Cinderella Continued, or the Rat and the Six Lizards”), La Baionette, January 16, 1919.

[The fairy godmother lets the Rat continue as a coachman and the lizards as footmen. They sell the coach, take on disguises, and live in clover wandering the roads. The rat learns to read, amasses a quantity of books and becomes known as Lerat de Bibliothèque, compiling numerous works that are preserved at Oxford in manuscript form. The lizards become artists–a poet, a painter, a sculptor, an architect, a musician, and a dancer–and are known now as “les Arts.” Lerat and four of his artful companions die, but Lacerte the poet and Armonidor the musician live on in wretchedness. They force entry into the Royal palace and take a casket that has in it Cinderella’s squirrel-fur slippers. They are arrested and would be executed, but Armonidor takes the blame on himself and Lacerte returns home to compose an epitaph. He dies a month later. The slippers end up in a museum in Pittsburgh.]

Arthur, Katherine. Cinderella Wife. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1985.

[Backcover: She’d be crazy to say yes. Powerful fashion mogul Davin Sigmundsen’s proposal of a marriage of convenience was the most bizarre thing Susanna had ever heard. She knew she’d be convincing in the role of Davin’s adoring wife, but what experience had she really with his world - the world of the super-rich? More important, when her year as Davin’s wife was over, how could she bear to give him up? Flyleaf: “You’d have all the luxuries I can offer.” Davin’s face was impassive. “I’d see that it was a very pleasant year for you. And I thought it might appeal to you as a job, if nothing else.” Susanna’s mind whirled. To live, if only for a year, as one of the rich and famous– and when that year was up, just like Cinderella, her jeweled coach would turn back into a pumplin. Could she carry it off? Would it be worth it? “I have to know all the details,” she said quietly. “For a man like you to have to hire a wife is– almost unbelievable. I can’t do it until I know the reason. Just why do you need a wife so badly, right now?”]

Arthur, Ruth M. The Whistling Boy. London: Collins, 1969; rpt. 1973.

[“Teenage Kirsty hates her young and pretty stepmother, Lois. Her father remarried just a year after her real mother died of a heart attack. Her twin brothers seem not at all put out about the second marriage. Kirsty explains to herself, ‘I was the odd one out, my father had Lois, the twins had each other, and I — had no one’” (p. 30). Fortunately, the sympathetic housekeeper, (the fairy godmother figure), suggests that Kirsty go for a working summer holiday to her sister’s, near Norfolk, on the English coast. There she meets another Cinderella figure, Jake, the son of a cold, rejecting mother who thinks Jake may be mentally ill. All of these subplots (including one about a friend, Dinah, a third Cinderella figure who suffers rejection at the hands of an alcoholic mother) are brought to their respective climaxes and happy endings, including the laying of an unhappy ghost from many years before, the Whistling Boy of the title. As in the traditional Cinderella, hard work must be done, risks taken, anguish and strong emotions suffered, characters developed. Even at the end, there still remains the haunting by the unquiet sea where the Whistling Boy drowned himself” (Gough, p. 103).]

Ashley, Bernard. Sally Cinderella. London: Orchard Books, 1989.

Atwood, Margaret. Good Bones and Simple Murders. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, 1994.

[Reworks issues of fairy tales for amusing and provocative ends. Ch. 3 “Unpopular Gals” deals with the “wicked” or “ugly” stepsisters and concludes: “You can wipe your feet on me, twist my motives around all you like, you can dump millstones on my head and drown me in the river, but you can’t get me out of the story. I’m the plot, babe, and don’t ever forget it” (p. ll). Ch. 6 “There was once” begins: “There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest,” then challenges and revises details according to the quibbles of various politicized demands on what is acceptable to be said, until the whole beginning is lost, even the “once.” Ch. 13 “Happy Endings” offers several scenarios for an end, ultimately concluding, “John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die” (p.56).]

Auch, Mary Jane. Glass Slippers Give You Blisters. New York: Holiday House, 1989.

[Sixth grader Kelly MacDonald doesn’t get the lead in the Riverton Junior High production of Cinderella, nor does she get to do the sets, even when her designs are better than Janet Poole’s, but when the lighting director has to drop out, she gets that job and transforms a drab production into something magical. Even a white tennis shoe becomes a luminous slipper. The story studies the tensions between three generations of women–Kelly, her practical mom, and her artist grandmother.]

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. 1813.

[A virtuous daughter, favored by her father, succeeds despite foolish sisters and foolish mother. She marries the worthy D’Arcy to live on his tasteful estate, with psyche restored and fulfilled. See also Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park.]

Avery, Barbara J. Say, Did You Lose Your Shoe?. 1977.

Baldwin, Peter. “Twisted Prince.” N. p.: n.p. 2011. Kindle edition.

[Part of Baldwin’s series called A Twisted Fairy Tale, this short story is available in e-book format. Be warned that the story is not politically correct and might easily offend. It offers a lesson in “being careful what you wish for” as Wantaloty, the Cinderella, does not realize that the prince she lusts after, Sir Beefcake, prefers his servant, Ben Dover. When she saves a wizard and obtains her wish of marrying the Prince who faces exile if he cannot find a bride, she does not realize that she has married a man who cannot love her.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Baker, Jennifer. At Midnight: A Novel Based on Cinderella. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1995.

[Back Cover: “Some day my prince will come …. Ella Browning once led an enchanted life. Popular and pretty, Ella looked forward to a carefree future filled with happiness and joy – until the death of her cherished father pushed her to the brink of despair. Left alone, dependent upon her stepmother [Lucinda] and her two cruel stepsisters [Staci and Drew], Ella spends her days slaving through back-breaking chores, and her nights are filled with tears and impossible dreams of finding a true love who will help her leave it all behind. Then she hears of the prince from a faraway land who has come to Ella’s town looking for a bride. Ella hardly dares to dream of even speaking to Prince Will. But when their eyes meet across a crowded room, when his touch melts her heart as they share a dance, Ella realizes something magical has happened. Now she must put her faith in that magic and hope a broken shoe and the memory of a kiss can bring her prince back to her. Once Upon a Dream … where wishes really do come true.”]

Banks, Carol. Yellow, Yellow Cinderella. Whitby, Ontario: Plowman, 1990.

Bayley, Frederick William Naylor (1808-1853). Cinderella. London: Wm. S. Orr & Co. Amen Corner Paternoster Row, [between 1842 and 1849].

Beattie, Ann. “The Cinderella Waltz.” From The Burning House, by Ann Beattie. New York: International Creative Management, Inc., and Random House, 1980, 1981, 1982. First published in The New Yorker, 1979; rpt. in Another Part of the Forest: The Flamingo Anthology of Gay Literature. Ed. Alberto Manguel and Craig Stephenson. New York: Flamingo (An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers), 1994. Pp. 40-58.

[The narrator, Louise’s mother, is divorced but remains friends with Milo, Louise’s father, who is gay and living with Bradley. The story studies the complex “family” relationship, as the mother comes to accept, even be concerned over Bradley. Milo is somewhat insensitive, but maintains real affection for his daughter. He takes a job in San Francisco and leaves the ex-wife and Bradley behind. Louise is consoled with the possibility of visiting him and riding in the glass elevator of the Fairmont Hotel. “Before Louise was born, Milo used to put his ear to my stomach, and say that if the baby turned out to be girl he would put her in glass slippers instead of booties. Now he is the prince once again. I see them in a glass elevator, not long from now, going up and up, with the people below getting smaller and smaller, until they disappear” (p. 58).]

Berberova, Nina. “The Tattered Cloak.” In The Tatered Cloak and Other Novels, translated by Marian Schwartz. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991; Vintage International, 1992. Pp. 163-212.

[Uses many Cinderella/Tattercoat components in developing the bleak narrative. With the death of Sascha’s mother, the post revolution Russian family rapidly declines in Petersburg. Living in extreme poverty Sascha cares for her father and tries to keep a dream alive. Her sister runs off with a theater man, Samoilov, who is already married. Sascha and her father move to Paris where the father’s sister Varvara lives. Sascha works through the depression and German occupation doing ironing, feeling manacled by her iron as a prisoner of fate. Her father refers to her as his little Cordelia. She turns down a marriage proposal, yearning in her fantasy for someone like the man who took her sister away. She tries to save a few francs each week, but with her father’s death, half of her savings are used up. Samoilov turns up years later in Paris looking for the father, to whom he wishes to apologize for taking his daughter from him. She died of typhoid somewhere in Russia, working as a traveling actress. Sascha, knowing that life has very few precious moments but that perhaps her sister had some, tries to convince Samoilov that what he did was not wrong, reminding him of a story he had told during the courtship of the sister about an old tattered cloak in the bottom of a trunk, which became a metaphor of the human spirit, moth-eaten but too precious to be discarded (with references to King Lear and Don Quixote). He says Sascha has misremembered the occasion and the source of the story, and departs, leaving her increasingly aware of the fragility of life. But even though the world is going to hell, she senses a “blessed light is burning quietly for me.” She still searches for grandeur, truth, wisdom, and love. How can any grandeur visit a life of such poverty and vulgarity in the laundry or her aunt’s kitchen? Yet involuntarily she thinks she may once again face something of grandeur. But, she wonders, will any Samoilov ever be able to give her the signal?]

Beaumont, Anne. A Cinderella Affair. UK: Mills and Boon, 1991; Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1992.

[Backcover: She left her heart - not her glass slipper. Briony Spenser knew how Cinderella must have felt. When she returned to her fiancé, Matthew, after meeting and falling in love with the enigmatic Paul Deverill, it was as if the clock had struck twelve and the coach had turned into a pumpkin. Nothing would ever be the same for Briony. Matthew’s love could not diminish the power of her brief, sweet affair with Paul. Finally, out of sheer desperation, she tried to contact the man she loved, but she could not find him. Had Paul forgotten her already? Bleakly, Briony contemplated a life without meaning, a life without her handsome prince. Flyleaf: Suddenly Briony was afraid. Something was happening - had happened - between them. And whatever it was, it had to be stopped. She’d fled to Paris to clarify her emotional state, not to complicate it. “It is a beginning, isn’t it?” the stranger persisted gently, smiling at her in his will-sapping way. “No!” She sounded unnecessarily harsh, but she was panicking. A wild, forbidden excitement was beginning to pulse through her, threatening to get out of hand. Fear she could run from, but this other feeling made her a willing captive. “Yes,” he contradicted bluntly. “You don’t understand,” Briony told him hurriedly. “I’m engaged. I’m going to be married. As soon as I get back to England … I think.” Conclusion: She’d lost her lover, but his child was growing within her. Had Sheena got her hooks into him? She saw them together. He simply looked through her and walked on with Sheena. Her love turned to hatred. Then she met Paul again, in the restaurant where she worked. He asks bitterly about her hasty marriage. But this time he comes to help her, saying that he will be by her side even though she is bearing Matthew’s baby. She’s shocked. He doesn’t know that he’s the father. He learns the truth - Matthew is dead - nor did she love him. Paul will have a bride and a baby. “You’ve been my wife since I first saw you that rainy day in Paris,” Paul said positively. “It’s just that I’ve been longer claiming you than I expected.” His searching, possessive lips came down on hers again. Briony felt well and truly claimed at last. It was a lovely feeling.]

Bender, Aimee. “The Color Master.” In My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me. Ed. Kate Bernheimer. New York: Penguin Books, 2010. Pp. 366-85.

[Bender retells “Donkeyskin” from the perspective of men and women who make the princess’ dresses. The story emphasizes the lesson of realizing one’s own power and the ability to affect others as a young craftswoman learns to put anger into the gowns that will inspire a princess to reject her father’s incestuous desires. For more on this anthology, see My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Beresford, Titian. Cinderella. New York: Masquerade Books, 1996.

[According to the back cover, Titian Beresford triumphs again with this “magical exploration of the full erotic potential of this fairy tale … with castle dungeons and tightly corseted ladies-in-waiting, naughty viscounts and impossibly cruel masturbatrixes - nearly every conceivable method of erotic torture is explored and described in lush, vivid detail. A fetishist’s dream and a masochist’s delight!”]

Bernheimer, Kate, ed. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me. New York: Penguin Books, 2010.

[This collection of modern retellings represents stories from all over the world, and each story is followed by an authorial commentary on the story’s themes and inspirations. Kate Bernheimer wrote the introduction, and Gregory Maguire provides an additional forward. Many of the revisions experiment with various story-telling techniques, so the collection is not for those who want an easily recognizable retelling. One of the collection’s strengths, however, is that it generally avoids the more well-known fairy tales in favor of lesser known stories. Because the anthology is expansive, I offer a list of titles along with the story type or inspirational tale.

“Baba Iaga and the Pelican Child” [Baba Yaga stories]
“Ardour” [“The Snow Maiden”]
“I’m Here” [“Ivan Tsarevich”]
“The Brother and the Bird” [“The Juniper Tree”]
“Hansel and Gretel” [“Hansel and Gretel”]
“A Day in the Life of Half Rumpelstiltskin” [“Rumpelstiltskin”]
“With Hair of Hand-Spun Gold” [“Rumpelstiltskin”]
“The Swan Brothers” [“The Six Swans”]
“The Warm Mouth” [“The Bremen Town Musicians”]
“Snow White, Rose Red” [“Snow-White and Rose-Red”]
“The Erlking” [Goethe’s “The Earl King”]
“Dappelgrim” [“Dappelgrim,” a Norwegian folktale]
“The Wild Swans” [“The Wild Swans”]
“Halfway People” [“The Wild Swans”]
“Green Air” [“Bluebeard” and “The Little Match Girl”]
“The Mermaid in the Tree” [“The Little Mermaid”]
“When the Conch Shell Sings When the Body is Gone” [“The Little Mermaid”]
“The Snow Queen” [“The Snow Queen”]
“Eyes of Dogs” [“The Tinder Box”]
“Little Pot” [“The Teapot”]
“A Bucket of Warm Spit” [“Jack and the Beanstalk”]
“Catskin” [a story loosely based on “Catksin,” “Donkeyskin” and “Rapunzel”]
“Teague O’Kane and the Corpse” [“Teague O’Kane and the Corpse,” an Irish folktale]
“Pleasure Boating in Lituya Bay” [“Jump into My Sack,” an Italian fairy tale]
“Body-without-Soul” [“Body-without-Soul,” an Italian tale]
“The Girl, the Wolf, the Crone” [“The Story of Godmother”]
“My Brother Gary Made a Movie and This Is What Happened” [Giambattista Basile’s “The Young Slave”]
“The Color Master” [“Donkeyskin”]
“The White Cat” [“The White Cat,” a French tale]
“Blue-bearded Lover” [“Blue beard”]
“Bluebeard in Ireland” [“Blue beard”]
“A Kiss to Wake the Sleeper” [“The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”]
“A Case Study of Emergency Room Procedure and Risk Management by Hospital Staff Members in the Urban Facility” [“Cinderella”]
“Orange” [a retelling of The Odyssey]
“Psyche’s Dark Night” [“Cupid and Psyche”]
“The Story of the Mosquito” [“The Story of the Mosquito,” a tale from Vietnam]
“First Day of Snow” [“A Kamikakushi Tale,” from Japan]
“I Am Anjuhimeko” [“Sansh? the Steward,” a Japanese tale]
“Coyote Takes Us Home” [“Tales from Jalisco,” a Mexican tale]
“Ever After” [A Snow White retelling based on the Disney Film]
“Whitework” [Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Oval Portrait”]

[Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Block, Francesca Lia. “Glass.” In The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold. Joanna Cotler Books, 2000. Kindle edition.

[Block tells of a Cinderella who creates entire worlds in her stories, which is why her stepsisters keep her home out of jealousy. The protagonist does not mind the time alone, but her godmother sends her to the ball so the girl will one day create change at a greater level. She flees the ball when she sees how jealous her sisters become, but the prince finds her anyway and recognizes her despite the layers of ash. Her sisters finally see her potential and refuse to let their jealousy hold their sister back anymore.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Blume, Judy. It’s Not the End of the World. London: Pan, 1972; rpt. 1979.

[Karen’s parents fight and divorce, leaving Karen upset and confused. Feeling as abandoned as Cinderella, she finds godmother-like counsel in Val, who has been through the experience of having her parents divorce and who shares with Karen a book about the effects of such crises on children. With determination and well-focused work, Karen discovers that her problems are not the end of the world and that there can be personal happiness despite destructive family crises.]

Boswell, Barbara, Carole Buck, and Cassie Miles. Magic Slippers. New York: Avon Books, 1996.

[“All a woman needs is a perfect pair of shoes - and, oh yes, love.” According to the blurb and back cover: “A Perfect Fit. Deep down, every woman believes that, if she wears just the right outfit, the perfect man will step into her life. Except it never quite works that way. So we’ve added a touch of magic to the ensemble to nudge love along. Cinderella had her glass slipper. Dorothy her ruby pumps. Now here are three truly great pairs of shoes, each of which can transform even the most ordinary lady into a tantalizing love goddess - with a little bit of help … and the proper Prince Charming, of course.”

[Birthday Shoes, by Barbara Boswell: “Black suede pumps - and a broken gypsy curse - open a practical lady law assistant’s eyes to the sensual charms of her work-obsessed boss … and turn office politics into desk-top sizzle.” “Jordan had been riveted by those sexy shoes, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight of them on Janessa’s slender, pretty feet. He’d never gazed at a woman’s legs and felt heat streak through him. Yet the sight of Janessa’s shapely legs affected him like a lit match tossed into a pool of gasoline. He was going up in flames.”

[Cupid Wears Combat Boots, by Carole Buck: “Combat boots - and a matchmaking teen - convince a sex-kitten actress with a home-seeking heart that there is something far more important than her next action flick: going one-on-one with her virile combat instructor on a permanent basis.” “The cake split open, and Kayla Delaney emerged from the plaster-frosted pastry with a professional flourish. She was clad in an oversize khaki shirt that ended in the middle of her sleekly muscled thighs. There were streaks of camouflage on her face and black leather combat boots on her feet. ‘I don’t know what you wished for,’ she said in a throaty voice, staring directly into Quinn’s eyes. ‘But I’m what you got.’”

[Heart and Soles, by Cassie Miles: “Iridescent platform sandals - and a punk fairy godmother - expose the wild side of a practical-minded miss and thrust her into the arms of a long-lost love who’d like to re-park his own shoes under her bed.” “Julie Buchanan slowly turned and peered through the window of the secondhand boutique. Those shoes! Blue and green luminescent platform heels - absolutely outrageous! ‘Wow,’ she whispered. Her heart pounded, her breathing accelerated, and her eyes were blinded by a flash of light. A tempting siren assailed her ears: Buy me, buy me, buy me!”]

Brame, Charlotte Mary (1836-1884). A Modern Cinderella. 2nd ed. New York: F. M. Lupton, 1889.

Bridgham, Gladys Ruth. A Modern Cinderella. Boston: W.H. Baker, 1925.

Brooke, William J. “The Fitting of the Slipper.” In A Telling of the Tales: Five Stories, with drawings by Richard Egielski. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Pp. 51-74.

[What happens after the ball? A class-conscious Cockney Cinderella doesn’t want to try on the slipper when the prince approaches. Though they smash the glass slipper, they do spend time with each other and take a few steps together at the end.]

Browning, Dixie. Beckett’s Cinderella. New York: Silhouette Books, 2002.

[Back Cover: Beckett’s Fortune: Some men are made for lovin’–and you’ll love our Man of the Month. “You can’t refuse me!–Lancelot Beckett, millionaire on a mission to settle a debt. Secred heiress Liza Chandler didn’t want the money – or the rugged millionaire who’d suddenly come into her life. But Beckett had made a vow to get the job done … and he wasn’t the type to take no for an answer. Especially now when he discovered that beneath Liza’s plain-Jane exterior is a passionate woman just waiting to be protected. But would Liza trust Beckett enough to take his money … and let him into her heart? Passionate, powerful and provocative. Fly leaf: August’s Man of the Month is the first book in the exciting family-based saga Beckett’s Fortune, by Dixie Browning. Beckett’s Cinderella features a hero honor-bound to repay a generations-old debt and a poor-but-proud heroine leery of love and money she can’t believe is offered unconditionally. Praise for Dixie Browning: “There is no one writing romance today who touches the heart and tickles the ribs like Dixie Browning. The people in her books are as warm and real as a sunbeam and just as lovely” – New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard. “Each of Dixie’s books is a keeper guaranteed to warm the heart and delight the senses” – New York Times best selling author Jayne Ann Krentz. “A true pioneer in romance fiction, the delightful Dixie Browning is a reader’s most precious treasure, a constant source of outstanding entertainment.” – Romantic Times. “Dixie’s books never disappoint – they always lift your spirit!” – USA Today bestselling author Mary Lynn Baxter.]

-----. Cinderella’s Midnight Kiss. New York: Silhouette Books, 2000.

[Backcover: “Will you dance with me?” Orphaned Cindy Danbury’s heart beat faster when John Hale Hitchcock invited her into his arms. He was backethe handsome prince she’d adored from afar — and still beyond her reach. In fact, she should be serving at her stepcousin’s wedding, not dancing with the best man! But something in Hitch’s gaze coaxed her to say “yes!” and gave fuel to her secret dreams. Not only gorgeous, rich, and eligible, Hitch was gentle, kind and thoughtful. But could he see beyond Cindy’s poor-relation façade to the vibrant, loving woman inside? Perhaps Cindy should wake her Prince Charming with a kiss of her own … Fly leaf: Dear Reader, Isn’t it amazing how swiftly the years have flown past? I marvel at all the changes, yet one thing has never changed: the satisfaction to be found in reading a good romance. Twenty years ago our romances were somewhat different. They mirrored the times, as popular fiction usually does. In many ways they were more naïve, as were we. It seems in retrospect as though the edges were softer, but then, maybe that’s only in my imagination. I’ve written a Cinderella story. The old fairy tales, the legends and myths still persist, don’t they? Is there anyone among us who doesn’t long for a happy ending? Here you have it. Always, in a traditional romance. It’s a given. And I give this one to you with my blessings and my hopes for all our happy endings. My thanks to you, the readers, to the wonderful people at Silhouette, to the many friends I’ve made both there and among my fans - and the many more I hope to make in the future. Sincerely, Dixie Browning.]

Buck, Carole. “Cupid Wears Combat Boots.” In Magic Slippers. New York: Avon Books, 1996. Pp. 131-279.

[See the entry for Barbara Boswell, above.]

Burchell, Mary. Cinderella After Midnight. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1967; rpt. 1971, 1972, 1975.

[After three months at an exclusive seaside resort, paid for by her Aunt Gabrielle, Elaine gambles her future on hopes of a rich marriage. But she falls in love with Adrian, who makes no move on her because he is poor. But he can give the kind of kiss of which Roger Ivarley knows nothing, despite his wealth. So she agrees to marry Adrian, who turns out not to be so poor afterall.]

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden. London, 1911; rpt. with pictures by Tasha Tudor, New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1962.

[Burnett borrows several basic components from Grimm’s “Ash Daughter” in constructing the story: the mother’s promise to watch over her daughter after death; the impoverished child’s attendance of her mother’s grave, making it a kind of garden where a tree grows and birds nest. The garden, once an ashpit, serves also in loco parentis for motherless and ailing Colin as well. Mrs. Sowerby, the incarnation of motherhood, appears almost magically in the garden in a fairy godmother, earth goddess role. See Griswold, Audacious Kids (pp. 208-210).]

-----. A Little Princess; Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Told for the First Time. Illustrated by Ethel Franklin Betts. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1911. First published as Sara Crewe; or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1889. Reprinted with pictures by Jamichael Henterly, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1989; and with illustrations by Graham Rust, Boston: David R. Godine, 1989.

[A study in Victorian child abuse. At age seven, Sara Crewe, her French mother dead, is placed in Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies in London by her father, who is in service in India. Upon the death of her father by jungle fever and reversal of fortune, Sara is relegated to the attic, hard dirty work, and starvation, by the cruel Miss Minchin. Sara survives through kindness to the poor, friendship with animals, and a powerfully constructive imagination until her father’s business partner and his Indian servant move in next door, in search of the lost Sara. The servant observes the virtuous girl and her persecution for two years, performing godmother-like services for her until the discovery of her true identity is made and she is restored to the privileges she deserves.]

Burrows, Edith. A Garden Cinderella. Philadelphia: Penn, 1920.

Calonita, Jen. Flunked. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2015.

[Calonita creates a six-book series (Fairy Tale Reform School) that explores fairy tale villainy and redemption in a series aimed at children between ages 10-13. The story begins after the plot of Cinderella has occurred with now contrite wicked stepmother opening a reform school to help other children on a path to becoming evil. Cinderella is aware of her stepmother’s actions and rules alongside several other fairy tale princesses. The stepmother believes that people must address their wounds and redeem themselves, and she uses the school to show that she has healed. She employs the Big Bad Wolf, the Sea Witch, and other fairy tale villains although Rumpelstiltskin and the evil fairy from Sleeping Beauty serve as the series’ antagonists.

Although the series does offer an interesting take on the wicked stepmother and how she was a social outcast after Cinderella marries, the series stays close to Disney’s depictions in how its villains are described. Other smaller tales like the “Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe” also appear, but the plot focuses on a series of teen protagonists and their choices rather than any particular fairy tale. The other books in the series include Charmed, Tricked, Switched, Wished, and Cursed.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Carpenter, Helen K., and Edward Childs Carpenter. The Cinderella Man. A Romance of Youth. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1916.

Carter, Angela. “Wolf-Alice.” The Bloody Chamber. New York: Penguin Books, 1979. Pp. 119-126.

[Despite its placement after “The Werewolf” and “The Company of Wolves” (two variations of Little Red Riding Hood), Carter’s “Wolf-Alice” seems to hold more in common with Cinderella tales than with Red Riding Hood stories. Raised by wolves and later “rescued” by humans, Wolf-Alice eventually becomes a servant in the house of a duke (a grave robber who seems to possess aspects of both werewolves and vampires and whose reflection does not appear in mirrors), cleaning his palace and sleeping in the ashes of the kitchen fire. The motif of time, so important in Cinderella, makes an appearance here as Wolf-Alice begins to gain an understanding of the passage of weeks and months after the onset of her menstrual cycle. It is also after menstruation that Wolf-Alice begins to take an interest in grooming herself, finally deciding that she “must thoroughly wash off her coat of ashes” upon the discovery of a wedding dress that once belonged to a corpse exhumed by the duke (p. 125). (N.B., The Grimms’ Cinderella, who receives dresses from a bird—a possible manifestation of her mother—that sits in the tree which she planted on her mother’s grave, may also be said to obtain her clothing from the dead.) Emerging from the castle “like a debutante” while wearing the gown, Wolf-Alice goes, not the ball, but a churchyard (just as Cinderella goes to church as opposed to a dance or a series of dances in some variants of the tale) (p. 125). There she encounters a group of villagers who succeed in wounding the duke in an attempt to protect their dead. After following him home, Wolf-Alice begins to lick his wound, and the story is transformed into a Beauty and Beast tale as through her act of human kindness, the duke apparently begins to transform from his monstrous state as werewolf/vampire into a human—evidenced by the fact that his reflection begins to appear in a nearby glass.] [Annotation by Andrea H. Everett] See the annotation for the film under Movies and Television.

Cartland, Barbara. The Mysterious Maid-Servant. Bantam Romance 58. New York: Bantam Books, 1977.

[From the blurb: “Giselda had nowhere to turn. Without the money for the operation her young brother might die. Her wealthy employer, the Earl of Lyndhurst, might be kind and generous, but she could never accept his charity. He must not know the terrible reason for her family’s poverty. Choking back her pride and knowing that she was about to forfeit the love and respect she so tenderly wished from him, she said in a very low voice: ‘I have … heard, and I do not think I am mistaken, that there are … g-gentlemen who will pay large sums of money for a girl who is … p-pure. I want … I must have … £50 immediately … and I thought perhaps you could find me … someone to give me … that amount.” The year is 1816. All works out well for both the Earl and Giselda. “Her négligée slipped to the ground and for a moment the Earl saw her body silhouetted through her diaphanous nightgown against the glow of the flames. Then two strong arms drew her into the bed. The Earl held her very tight. He could feel that she was trembling, and her heart was beating as frantically as his. ‘I love you! Oh, my darling, precious little wife, I love you! Now we are together, as I have always wanted us to be.’ ‘Together … ’ Giselda whispered, ‘b-but I am afraid you will be … disappointed because you hate … thin women.’ … They became one person. There were no more mysteries, no more secrets, only love — a love stretching out towards an indefinable horizon.”]

Christenberry, Judy. A Ring for Cinderella. Silhouette Romance #1356. New York: Silhouette Books, 1999.

[The lucky charm sisters marry for convenience, but finding love is more difficult. Kate Greenwood is the boss of the Lucky Charm Diner, sister Maggie is the brains, and the youngest sister, Susan Greenwood, is a beauty who works hard as a waitress. But instead of a tip, Zach Zowry, a handsome young cowboy, proposes marriage, in front of everyone, right in the middle of the Lucky Charm Diner. The marriage is to be brief and strictly on her terms: he simply needs a bride to soothe his dying grandfather. Both Zach and Susan are virgins, but they find themselves falling in love in their pretend marriage as her selfless gestures and warm embraces turn the cynical rancher into an optimist with knots in his stomach, hoping to make a real future and family with his Cinderella bride, which he does.]

Cinderella and Her Glass Slippers. Stereotyped by T. Steward. Bath, N.Y.: R.L. Underhill, [between 1843-1863].

Cinderella on the Ball. Dublin: Attic, 1991.

Cole, Isabel. “The Brown Bear of Norway.” In Black Thorn, White Rose. Ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. New York: Avon Books, 1995. Pp. 132-150.

[Based on the Norwegian tale, Cole has written a study of the loneliness of puberty. A woman, always cold and alone, recalls her meeting of an exchange student from Norway when she was fifteen in a New York City school. When he returns to Norway, the boy tells her that he has a friend in Norway who wants a pen pal from America. The “friend” calls himself the Brown Bear of Norway. After the boy returns, she receives a letter from “the Brown Bear”; she replies, entering into the imaginative relationship; she feels free for the first time. New York becomes more real to her and she dreams of the fantastic shape shifter. One night she dares to wake up, turns on the light, and looks upon him as he sleeps. She sees him in the shadows, but then he disappears. For three years she lives in confusion and exacerbated loneliness. Then she sets out in search of him, all the time uncertain of her identity as a woman, or just what it is that she desires. She goes to Norway and finds an empty house. A boy appears and seems to know that she is looking for the Brown Bear. He sends her to Stockholm where she meets the “Bear”’s mother, but the youth has moved on. The woman is ready to give up, but the mother tells her that she must continue the search, that the bear has lost his skin, and that he needs her. The woman at last finds him, hidden in a dark room, his new human clothes off, asleep and bleeding. She picks up his clothes and then wipes him clean. He awakens and but does not seem to recognize her. She declares her love in English then flees. He pursues, and she recognizes him as the Norwegian boy from school. They walk on together in the cold, but she now is not cold. Melting snow trickles through her hair, “down her face, from my eyes” (p. 150).]

Colum, Padraic. The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes. New York, 1919; Reissued, Macmillan, 1968.

[See Ellin Greene’s analysis under Criticism, which identifies the dozen or so folklore types the Colum draws upon in constructing his story.]

Converse, Jane. Cinderella Nurse. A Signet Book. South Yarmouth, Maine: Curley Publishing, 1967.

[Backcover: Her sister was too beautiful and too spoiled for her own good. Her mother dabbled in mysticism on Rita’s salary. Rita Ambler was young, beautiful … and a Cinderella nurse. “Give it up,” Glenn Seabrook had said. “They’re using you, Rita. They’ll never change.” But she couldn’t abandon her family. And she lost Glenn. It all seemed so long ago. Before she became wife to an alcoholic, mother to a son — and a widow. At twenty-four, life held no more surprises for Rita Ambler. Then came the accident that changed everything, that thrust Rita Ambler into the arms of Dr. Lester Wyman and out of the reach of his new protégé Dr. Glenn Seabrook … the only man she had ever loved. Flyleaf: After the ball is over: What happens then? What happens to a beautiful sister who can’t say no? To an eccentric mother who finds her answers in the cards? To the trusting little boy who is her fatherless son? Responsibility had become a way of life to Rita Ambler. In the name of duty she lost Dr. Glenn Seabrook. And now he had returned to Brianwood Hospital. Could she ever dare hope that he would still care? Was it too late to turn to Glenn now that she had accepted Dr. Lester Wyman’s proposal? Rita Ambler could not afford to make the same mistake twice, for she knew thre would be no second chance for a CINDERELLA NURSE.]

Cooke, Marjorie Benton (1876-1920). Cinderella Jane. New York: A. L. Burt company, 1917.

Corbin, Cheryl. The Beauty in the Castle: Fairy Tales from Long Ago. N.p.: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011.  

[This brief collection (approximately 31 pages) includes three unusual revisions. “The Beauty That Sleeps” works to combine robots and Sleeping Beauty. “The Beauty in the Tower” offers an amusing ending to Rapunzel's story, and “The Beauty and the Beast” echoes the work of Tanith Lee as it questions which character might have a more blood thirsty nature.] [Annotation by Martha M. Johnson-Olin]

Cotes, Mrs. Everard (1861-1922). Cousin Cinderella. Leipzig: B. Tauchnitz, 1908; rpt. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.

Cowden, Bess Sherman. Cinderella from Hong Kong. Franklin, Ohio: The Eldridge Entertainment House, 1927.

Cripps, Arthur Shearly (1869-1952). Cinderella in the South. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell, 1918.

Crockett, Samuel Rutherford (1860-1914). Cinderella: A Novel. London: J. Clarke & Co., 1901.

[Crockett’s novels were very popular. He wrote 83 of them which appeared in numerous editions, some with introductions by R. L. Stevenson, etc. His Cinderella was carried by four publishers, including Thomas Nelson and Sons in their popular pocketbook series.]

Cross, Caroline. Cinderella’s Tycoon. New York: Silhouette Book, 1999.

[A Desire book in the Texas Gentleman’s Club series, where five wealthy Texas bachelors - all members of the state’s most exclusive club - set out on a mission to rescue a princess … and find true love. Backcover: The Business Tycoon: “Honor” was Texas tycoon Sterling Churchill’s middle name. So when a mix-up at the local sperm bank unexpectedly made him a father-to-be, he gallantly stepped forward to marry shy beauty Susan Wilkins. It was a marriage in name only - until he gave his bride a soul-spinning kiss. Now his new wife was carrying his child and wearing a look of pure splendor. Could tough-as-nails Sterling open the rusty doors of his heart … and turn pumpkins into coaches for his Cinderella bride? Fly leaf: This month, in Cinderella’s Tycoon by Caroline Cross, meet Sterling Churchill — CEO of Churchill Enterprises. Nothing seems too big a challenge for steely Sterling, until he finds himself marrying Susan Wilkins — a plain-Jane librarian who wants only to have her baby in peace in this modern-day Cinderella love story.]

Crossley, Dave. “Christopher’s Punctured Romance.” In Help!, ed. Harvey Kurtzman. May 1965.

[Though not a Cinderella plot, this photo-cartoon satire on a male’s doll-for-a-partner fantasy touches on several Cinderella fantasy motifs, particularly the erotic dream (in this instance, a male dreamer), clothes and sexual arousal, yearning for the perfect princess with the prince as rescuer and possessor, and the plastic bride as forever. With John Cleese as Christopher Barrel, Cindy Young as Wilma Barrel; photographer Martin Iger. Rpt. in Kim “Howard” Johnson’s The First 20X Years of Monty Python (New York: Python Productions Ltd, 1989, pp. 29-43). Christopher Barrel, suffering from ennui, comes home from work exhausted and bored to be waited on by his lovely, perfect-in-all-ways doll of a wife, who fixes him a drink. He finds his daughter’s new Barbie doll and falls in love with it. At night he slips away from Wilma and undresses Barbie, admires her “things,” and then {censored}. Next day he can think of nothing but Barbie at work. He comes home to find Ken in Barbie’s closet and is outraged. He struggles with his fantasy and finally decides to apologize to Wilma for his infidelity. But in approaching her on the couch he trips over another box, this one containing “The Visible Woman,” which so sets him a-whirl with a new fantasy that he never apologizes. In “The Barbie Complex,” real plastic is preferred to human alternatives.]

Crottet, Robert. “Cinderella.” In The Enchanted Forest and Other Tales. With Introduction by Eric Linklater and Woodcuts by Eric King. London: The Richards Press, Ltd., 1949. Pp. 124-130.

[A male Cinderella story. The king of Agatavara and his daughter live on the top of the highest peak. When the king comes down to the valley none dare look at him, for the people say he has a face like the sun and would blind them. Only one young man, the third son of an old sick man dared look. He was called Cinderella because he had two older brothers for whom he did things that they would never dream of doing for him. He was a dreamer and did not mind the mockery of his brothers. As the old man is dying, he asks that his first son sit by him to ward off evil spirits on the first night, the second son on the second night, and Cinderella on the third. After the old man’s death the older two brothers will have nothing to do with the corpse. Cinderella washes the old man’s feet and dreams of the young princess on the peak behind the clouds. As the boy watches, the corpse sits up and tells the boy that he has followed the boy’s spirit and knows that a black horse will come whose mane shines like the Northern Lights. On the second night the father leads the boy to the foot of the mountain where a white horse, whose nostrils shine like the sun will come, but “you must keep the secret to yourself and I shall watch over you from the realm of the dead.” After the father is buried the elder sons enslave Cinderella and beat him for amusement. At night Cinderella goes to the foot of the mountain, but no horse can be seen. He grows weak and prays to his father that not much life remains. Then a black horse comes out of the night. The sick boy clings to it as fire flames from its nostrils. They rise above the clouds. Then an eagle swoops down and plants its claws in the boy’s forehead. Cinderella smiles at the eagle and wipes away the blood. He puts a scarf around his head to hide the blood when he returns home. At twilight he returns to the forest. This time a grey horse appears and takes him up the mountain. The eagle is now grey and tears the scarf away. Then it is rumoured that the king has come down once more. None can understand his melodious voice. His messenger comes to the house of the boys. He sees hardness in the eyes of the elder brothers and asks if there is anyone else there. The brothers point to Cinderella, whose mind, they say, is like that of a useless beast. The king leans over the boy who is pleased to see him. He notes the mark of the eagle on his forehead and tells how the boy watched at his dead father’s side without fear of death. He now will go to the feast where the daughter awaits. Then the people see a horse of dazzling white rise into the air, carrying the boy beyond the clouds as an eagle with snow-white wings leads the way to the castle.]

Cruikshank, George (1792-1878). Cinderella and the Glass Slipper. London: David Bogue, 1854. Cruikshank’s edition was first printed with ten handsome illustrations. Rpt. in George Cruikshank’s Fairy Library. London, 1865. [Four items: Puss in Boots; Jack and the Bean-Stalk; Hop-o’-My Thumb; and Cinderella]. Rpt. in The Cruikshank Fairy-Book. New York: Putnam, 1897, 1906, etc. Rpt. in Zipes, Victorian Fairy Tales, pp. 37-57, where Zipes identifies it as “a facinating museum-piece of moralism” (p. 38).

[A wealthy gentleman of high family has a handsome wife and beautiful and virtuous daughter. The wife dies, and after a few years the gentleman remarries. “It is the nature of woman to love children, because the Almighty has appointed her to bring them up” (p.39). Cinderella’s step-mother is the exception — an unjust, cruel, pompous spendthrift, who soon so squanders the gentleman’s estate that he is thrown into debtor’s prison. She then compels the daughter to do all the rough, dirty work as a slave for herself and her two daughters. She sleeps at the hearth and is called Cinderella. The Prince gives a ball, hoping to chose a wife. The stepsisters hasten to prepare themselves, but the mother becomes so fatigued that she has to go to bed. Cinderella helps the girls, making beautiful dresses for them and fixing their hair, enduring their fits of temper. They hire a coach and set off. Poor Cinderella settles down for the night when her godmother, a dwarf, visits. She asks Cinderella if she would not like to attend the ball. Cinderella says no. So the dwarf tells her that if she cooperates she may be able to get her father out of prison. So Cinderella consents, fetches a pumpkin, mice, lizards, and rat. The dwarf makes a miniature pumpkin coach, using mushrooms for wheels, with rat for coachman, mice for horses, and lizards for attendants, linking them all together with string. Cinderella is much amused. The dwarf proves herself a fairy, transforming everything into a splendid entourage. At the ball Cinderella thinks of her poor father, but has a good time nonetheless. The Prince gives her all his attention, but before twelve she slips away, leaving the Prince distracted. He orders a ball for the next night, hoping that she might return. On her way home Cinderella wonders what the godmother will do with the horses and carriage but is pleased to see them assume their diminished form. Next day hairdressers have raised their prices, so Cinderella prepares her sisters as before. The fairy keeps her word and Cinderella attends the ball once more. The Prince proposes marriage to her but she says she must consult her father and friends. At midnight she flees, the Prince in hot pursuit. She loses a slipper and, as he stops to pick it up, she hides in one of the passages, then slips out in her scullery clothes, followed by the mice pulling the pumpkin. The Prince searches for her but she gets home unnoticed; the pumpkin arrives just as the Prince rides by. Later she sees him pass again, despondent. Next day the Prince announces the quest for the one whom the slipper fits. The Chamberlain comes, the stepsisters try, Cinderella asks if she might try, is mocked, but then is given the chance. The Queen sends for her at once, but Cinderella tarries, forgiving her stepsisters, cheering them up with prospects from the court, and greeting her father, who the fairy has gotten released from prison. The father and godmother go with Cinderella to the Palace, Cinderella now in her fine clothes. The King is delighted to see her father, who was an old friend. The Queen accepts the dwarf into her court. The dwarf then debates with the King the evils of alcohol, even in moderation. It sets a bad example for the kingdom. So he agrees to have a dry wedding. The festivities last several days.]

See Dickens, below, for a synopsis of the satire which precipitated Cruikshank’s temperance-league conclusion. See also Dickens under Criticism for details on the ideological altercation that led to Cruikshank’s writing his Cinderella. Cruikshank’s father had died an alcoholic, and he himself had been a heavy drinker but reformed after his father’s death, publishing several works on abstinence, including “The Bottle.”

Crusie, Jennifer. The Cinderella Deal. A Loveswept Romance. New York: Bantam Books, 1996.

[According to the back cover and the blurb, “Linc Blaise needed the perfect fiancée to win his dream job, but finding a woman who’d be convincing in a charade seemed impossible - until he heard Daisy Flattery charm her way out of a sticky situation! Playing the prim and proper bride-to-be was a lark to the dazzling storyteller, but once she glimpsed the touching vulnerability Linc tried to hide, pretense turned into temptation. Could she find a way to make their fairy tale last? In a deliciously funny and touching tale of opposites attracting, Jennifer Crusie warms hearts and tickles funnybones from start to finish! Daisy had made him believe in wondrous possibilities, drawn him into a world of passionate abandon, but was he brave enough to give her his love?” “He looked good enough to be Prince Charming.” “When she smiled at him like that, it was hard to think. Imagine what that smile could do in Prescott. Make a note to have her smile a lot in Prescott, he told himself. She stuck her hand across the table, and he took it. Her grip was firm and warm. ‘It’s a deal, then,’ she said. ‘A Cinderella deal.’ ‘Good.’ He stood up and patted her on the head. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, then.’ Daisy was still glaring at the door after he’d closed it behind him. A cat kicker. An elbow grabber. A head patter. ‘This may be a Cinderella deal,’ Daisy told the cats, ‘but trust me, he’s no prince.’” But at the end, when she snuggles close to him with “such megawatt contentment that she took his breath away,” Daisy concludes, “I want all the happily-ever-after I can get” (p. 228).]

Cushman, Gail Decker. After the Ball: Cinderella in Three Analytical Perspectives. Dissertation. 1977.

Dalton, Emily. Sign Me, Speechless in Seattle. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1998.

[Written in an occasionally epistolary style, this Austen-like novel presents Mathilda McKinney, who is an advice columnist who goes by the name “Aunt Tilly.” She finds herself embroiled with Julian Rothwell, Duke of Chesterfield, who harrasses her for the troubles her advice has caused him. She wishes she could write Aunt Tilly for advice herself as she finds herself, an American, falling in love with this tall, blond, and charming Englishman, who wears ties, heather gray suits, and tails, while she wears sweats and sneakers. “He’s a British peer. I’m an all-American gal. Oh, yeah — and I’ve ruined his life. What do I tell him? Sign Me, Speechless in Seattle.” But she does solve the problem for both of them, first through antagonized frustration, then through love. He sees her even better than she sees herself. She could tell that he loved her even as much as she loved him. The kiss, sexy as ever, added emotional dimensions she had not anticipated. “'How could such a wonderful thing be happening?' she wondered as he continued to hold her and kiss her despite the busy comings and goings of crowds in the lobby. She was Cinderella at the ball. She was Michael Jordan at the NBA playoffs. She was Meryl Streep at the Oscars. She wasn’t a nobody. She was a somebody. and Julian Rothwell loved her just for herself” (p. 249).]

D’Anard, Elizabeth. Cinderella Summer. New York: Harper-Collins, 1992.

[Backcover: Anne wants more out of life. Ever since Anne’s father left their quiet island home years ago, she has longed to live an exciting “mainland” life. So when her father asks her to come live in Seattle for the summer with his new family, Anne accepts, knowing the only thing she’ll miss about tiny Perry Island is her lifelong friend Ryan. Anne soon finds out the sophisticated city life she imagined doesn’t exist. Her father is seldom home, her stepmother is distant, and her stepsister treats her like an unwelcome intruder. But Anne’s summer is saved when she meets Phillip Conrad, who quickly wins her trust and love, and shows her what life in the city has to offer. Still, as the summer grows shorter Anne realizes she misses Perry Island - and Ryan. And when summer ends, Anne must choose between her two worlds and the boys who live in them. Flyleaf: As Anne approached Patsy, she noticed her stepmother’s tense expression. “Hi, Patsy! Hope I’m not too late.” “Anne … ” Patsy began stearnly. Anne stopped in her tracks, shocked by the angry tone of her voice. “I’ll have you know that you may not drive off with a boy to God knows-where without my permission.” Patsy looked older with her lips pursed in a tight line. “But I thought you understood I was going for a ride with Phillip,” Anne replied politely. “I’m really sorry.” “When my girls want to spend the afternoon with a young man,” Patsy continued, “they ask for my permission. They tell me where they’re going, whom they’re going with, and when they’ll be back.” “I’m so sorry, Patsy,” Anne said quickly. “Things might be a little bit more casual on Perry Island,” Patsy said tartly. Anne felt her cheeks growing hot with anger. “But we have strict rules around here.” Tears welled up in Anne’s eyes, but she refused to cry in front of her stepmother. She wasn’t about to let Patsy alienate her or belittle her Perry Island upbringing. She would keep trying to fit in. She only hoped she had the strength to continue. Letter from the editor: Dear Reader, Thanks for picking up this Changes Romance. We hope that you’ll enjoy reading it as much as we’ve enjoyed bringing it to you. Our goal is to present realistic stories about girls in true-to-life circumstances, with relationships and problems that readers will understand and appreciate. In other words, we want to try to capture the changes you’re probably facing in your own life today. We hope we’ve succeeded, but the only way we can know for sure is to hear from you. Please write us or your favorite Changes authors, and tell us what you liked (or didn’t like!) about the Changes Romances you’ve read. Tell us how we stack up against your other favorite books. Tell us about the kinds of stories you’d like to read in future Changes novels. What does romance mean to you! What kinds of characters do you identify with! Where should the stories take place? What sort of problems or conflicts should a Changes heroine encounter. In this way we can bring you more of the stories you want to read .... Chloë Nichols]

Daniels, Philip. Cinderella Spy. Leicester: Linford, 1984; 1989.

Darcy, Lilian. Cinderella After Midnight. New York: Silhouette Books, 2001.

[The Cinderella Conspiracy: Will three daring sisters find true love when the clock strikes midnight? She had the dream dress, the shoes … and a secret. All she needed was Prince Charming. For “Lady Catrina” was really plain, poor Catrine Brown — and she didn’t belong at the glamorous ball she’d so boldly crashed. Cat’s mission was desperate, yet success seemed within her reach ... until her gaze met Patrick Callahan’s across the crowded room. The handsome millionaire bachelor was everything she despised in a man — wasn’t he? Trapped in his heated stare, Catrina knew Patrick saw through her flimsy disguise. Come midnight, would he expose her masquerade … or would this magical night last until dawn-and beyond? “I’m sorry … good night, Patrick I have to go!” “Wait, Cat!” “No, Patrick, I’m late … ” She pushed open the outer door and ran into the humid June night. But he was still behind her. “Stop! You can’t leave like this, when we’ve — when I have no idea who you really are.” Cat didn’t listen. Couldn’t listen. Her skin was still alive and hot from the way they’d touched. But she had no illusions about what Patrick Callahan felt, even if he did. Skittering down the steps, she felt her spike-heeled shoe come loose. It hurt. Why hadn’t she felt that before? Deliberately, she kicked the shoe off and left it on the step. Like Cinderella. (Backcover and come-on blurb.)]

-----. Saving Cinderella. New York: Silhouette Books, 2001.

[The Cinderella Conspiracy: Will three daring sisters find true love when the clock strikes midnight? Months ago, rancher Grayson McCall had impulsively married single mom Jill Brown to rescue her from a bad situation. They’d shared a brief, stirring kiss and then parted, sure they’d never meet again. She’d had a whirlwind wedding — but no wedding night! Now Jill — and her little boy—arrived in Montana desperate for help once more. She needed a small favor — for Grayson to arrange their divorce! But when he took his wife into his arms, their kisses were longer and stronger. Would Prince Charming let his Cinderella go? Or would he claim her for more than one night? Ten more days of him and Jill rubbing up against each other, the way two people inevitably did when they shared the same space. Ten more days of bumping into her in doorways, of watching the way she ate and the way she laughed and the way she so tenderly kissed and hugged her son. “Ten days,” Gray thought. “Lord, he was still shaking! She’s going to be here for another ten days! This would be a whole lot easier if we weren’t married,” he muttered aloud in his room. There was something about being married. He kept thinking about what marriage meant. It meant sharing. Sharing their space, as he was doing with Jill. Sharing their stories. They’d begun to do that, too, the very first night they met. Sharing their lives … And marriage meant one more thing, too. It meant sharing a bed. (Backcover and come-on blurb.)]

-----. Finding Her Prince. New York: Silhouette Books, 2002.

[The Cinderella Conspiracy: Will three daring sisters find true love when the clock strikes midnight? Duty-bound to serve his country, Prince Stephen Serkin-Rimsky readily agreed to marry a beautiful stranger to safeguard the throne. Stephen wasn’t prepared for the consuming passion Suzanne Brown’s innocent kisses aroused in him-or that their marriage would feel so– right. Still, this honorable prince knew his tiny country was counting on him to secure custody of their rightful heir–Suzanne’s baby niece–at whatever cost. Even if it meant turning his back on what his own traitorous heart most desired! “You,” Stephen said. He was standing beside her, and Suzanne felt the warmth of his forearm against her wrist. She noticed the way his smile lit up his whole face. Like baby Alice’s smile. Slowly she was beginning to lose that instinctive mistrust she’d had on first meeting him. Maybe here, at last, was someone else who cared about her orphaned niece. “What on earth can she be dreaming about that’s making her so happy?” “She’s dreaming about your voice,” he continued. “Your fragrance. The songs you sing to her.” They were both watching the baby again, intent on every tiny movement in her face. “Am I right thinking you would give almost anything to be able to bring her up as your own?” Stephen asked suddenly. “Of course I would,” Suzanne answered. “I love her.” “Then marry me.” (Backcover and come-on blurb.)]

Datlow, Ellen, and Terri Windling, ed. Snow white, Blood Red. New York: Avon Books, 1993.

[Twenty contemporary revisions of old tales by a wide range of diverse fantasy writers. This volume includes Jane Yolen’s “Knives” (see Modern Poetry). Also variations on The Frog Prince, Snow White and Rose Red, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, the Billy Goats Gruff, etc. The Introduction works with fairy tale ideas by George MacDonald, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Jane Yolen to lament the decline of story-telling as an enterprise of cultural exploration for adults as well as children. “A true fairytale is, to my mind, very like the sonata. If two or three men sat down to write each what the sonata meant to him, what approximation to define the idea would be the result? A fairytale, a sonata, a gathering storm, a limitless night, seizes you and sweeps you away. The law of each is in the mind of its composer; that law makes one man feel this way, another man feel that way. To one the sonata is a world of odour and beauty, to another of soothing only and sweetness. To one the cloudy rendevous is a wild dance, with terror at its heart; to another a majestic march of heavenly hosts, with Truth in their center pointing their course but as yet restraining her voice. Nature is mood-engendering, thought-provoking; such ought the sonata, the fairytale to be” — George McDonald, in Fantasists on Fantasy, as cited by Datlow, p. xv.]

-----. Black Thorn, White Rose. New York: Avon Books, 1994.

[A collection of eighteen tales rewritten by different authors, four of which are Cinderella variants, including Tim Wynne-Jones, “The Goose Girl” (1994), Midori Snyder, “Tattercoats” (1994),Daniel Quinn,“The Frog King, or Iron Henry” (1994), and Peter Straub, “Ashputtle” (1994). The introduction considers fairy tales as the heart of the culture that, as Tolkien put it, “holds the sea, the sun, the moon, the sky, and the earth and all things in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.” The introduction discusses 19th century bowdlerization of fairy tales and laments the ways in which the 20th century has watered them down, retaining mainly the happy-ever-after of success stories. “How many modern readers know that in the older versions of the tale the sleeping princess is awakened not by a chaste kiss but by the suckling of twin children she has given birth to, impregnated by a prince who has come and gone while she lay in ‘sleep as heavy as death’? How many readers know that Cinderella transformed her life of servitude not with the help of talking mice and fairy godmothers, but with the force of her anger, sharp cunning, and wits? How many know that it was Red Riding Hood’s nearsighted granny who cried, ‘Oh my, oh my, what big teeth you have!’ to the wolf, who quickly gobbled her up - and then finished off with Red Riding Hood for dessert, with no convenient woodsman near to save her?” (p. 2). The power of tales “is due to this ability to confront unflinchingly the darkness that lies outside the front door, and inside our own hearts” (p. 2). Disney movies and films like Pretty Woman illustrate the failure of commercial America to catch the essense of the fairy tale.]

-----. Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears. New York: Avon Books, 1995.

[Includes twenty-one stories by diverse writers, all based on fairy tales. See especially Tanith Lee, “The Beast,” drawing upon Beauty and the Beast; Susan Wade, “Ruby Slippers,” that combines Red Shoes with Wizard of Oz; Gene Wolfe, “The Deato of Koshchei the Deathless,” based on a Russian fairy tale; Farida S. T. Shapiro, “This Century of Sleep; or, Briar Rose Beneath the Sea,” combining Briar Rose and Sleeping Beauty to approach the Holocaust; Susan Palwick, “The Real Princess,” using The Princess and the Pea to examine men who look for sensitive and delicate princesses as dangerous and sinister beings; and Kathe Koja, “Waking the Prince,” which explores Sleeping Beauty in terms of feminist insights.]

-----. Fantasy and Horror: The Year’s Best. The Tenth Annual Collection. Ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996.

[Terri Windling’s introduction gives a comprehensive reassessment of the state of fantasy writing, both fiction and poetry, in the mid 1990s. The volume includes several stories pertinent to this bibliography: Tanith Lee, “The Reason For Not Going To The Ball (A Letter To Cinderella from Her Stepmother)”; Angela Carter, “The Snow Pavilion,” a posthumously published tale from one so powerfully influential in the area of fantasy writing and who often contributed to Datlow and Windling’s anthologies; Lisa Russ Spaar, “Rapunzel’s Exile,” a “dark and horrific rendering of the samiliar fairy tale, speculating on the complex nature of the relationship between foster daughter and witch” (p. 315); Chang Hwang, “Little Beauty’s Wedding,” a fantasy story that draws upon Chinese death folklore; Shara McCallum, “Persephone Sets the Record Straight,” a poem exploring the competition between a girl and a domineering mother that explains why she swallowed the pomegranate seeds: “Of course I ate those seeds. / Who wouldn’t exchange / one hell for another?” (p. 496); and Patricia C. Wrede, “Cruel Sisters,” a study in how sisters come to hate each other.]

-----. Black Swan, White Raven. New York: Avon Books, 1997.

[Like the earlier collections of fantasy tales, this volume includes twenty-one new reinventions of old stories, such as Anne Bishop, “Rapunzel,” which examines peasants, greed, and sorcery; Karen Joy Fowler, “The Black Fairy’s Curse,” a startling retelling of Sleeping Beauty; and Esther M. Friesner, “No Bigger Than My Thumb,” a dark story from a dark period for women in human history.]

-----. A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 2000.

[Fairy tale revisions by distinguished writers who loved Fairy Tales in their youth. The volume includes: Delia Sherman, “The Months of Manhattan”; Jane Yolen, “Cinder Elephant” (see synopsis under Yolen, below); Neil Gaiman, “Instructions”; Michael Cadnum, “Mrs. Big: ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ Retold”; Nancy Farmer, “Falada: The Goose Girl’s Horse”; Tanith Lee, “A Wolf at the Door”; Janeen Webb, “Ali Baba and the Forty Aliens”; Kelly Link, “Swans”; Katherine Vaz, “The Kingdom of Melting Glances”; Garth Nix, “Hansel’s Eyes”; Kathe Koja, “Becoming Charise”; Gregory Maguire, “The Seven Stage a Comeback”; and Patricia A. McKillip, “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.”]

Davis, Richard Harding. Cinderella and Other Stories. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896. Pp. 1-35.

[At the annual servants ball of the Hotel Salisbury, two gentlemen observe a young woman of beauty and talent dancing. A professional entertainer observes that she could make $100 a night as an dancer with just six lessons. The two gentlemen decide to become sponsors of this Cinderella — this Annie Crehan, who cleans and makes beds on the eighth floor of the hotel at a poverty wage. But they are detained in the elevator by the elevator boy who plans to marry her and describes their life together as blissful. He knows that she could make it big on stage, though she doesn’t know it. The promoters decide to let well enough alone and rather than attempt to be godfathers to “La Cinderella.” They ask the elevator boy to let them off at the street. The elevator boy remains in possession of his Annie, and she remains ignorant of her talent, but presumably happy.]

-----. The Lion and the Unicorn. Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904.

[Collection of stories including “The Lion and the Unicorn,” “Cinderella,” “Miss Delamar’s Understudy,” “On the Fever Ship,” “The Man with One Talent,” “The Vagrant,” “The Last Ride Together,” “The Editor’s Story,” and “An Assisted Emigrant.”]

Denny, Roz. The Cinderella Coach. Thorndike, ME: Thorndike Press, 1992; Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1992.

[Jade Han was not looking for a prince or any glass slipper when she designed the parade float. But her design won her an apprenticeship to a California float-building company. The owner of Fantasy Floats, Trask Jennings, does not want to be stuck with an apprentice designer, especially a spoiled rich kid; nor do Jade’s parents approve of her attempting to develop a working career. They want her instead to marry her intended, a point which irritates Trask all the more. But neither could count on their falling in love with each other. Their parade becomes so grand a success that they become partners — for life, building a legacy for their children.]

Diamond, Jacqueline. The Cinderella Dare. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1988.

[Backcover: Sometimes dreams do come true, but with unexpected results. When Mary Ellen Spencer was finally able to fulfill all her hopes and dreams and transform herself and her life, she found that it was not so easy to leave the old self behind. Going from fat to thin and from poor to rich didn’t solve all her problems by a long shot. It took her best friend, Patsy, to dare her to live the life of Cinderella. But even becoming her fantasy ideal, the elegant Mariel, didn’t solve the most important problem of all - how to fit the old with the new. Then the goal that overtook all others - to clear her father’s name for a wrongdoing she was convinced he did not commit - led her to her prince. Skip Toland, once her high-school dreamboat, had become even better as a man. Flyleaf: Why did he keep telling her she was elegant and romantic? It felt as if he were talking to someone else, perhaps to the fantasy Mariel. Mary Ellen Spencer in her high-school years would have given almost anything to hear those words from Skip Toland’s lips. And she would have drunk them in without question. But Mariel Spencer, age thirty-one, had learned to be cautious. As a girl, each time she gazed into the mirror, she’d held faint hope that somehow, magically, she would find herself transformed, like Cinderella. And now, not so magically, the transformation had taken place. So why did she feel like a fraud? This was her face and her body, but inside there still lived a heavyset woman who rarely rated a second glance from men. And inside, too, remained the scars of the girl who had fled from her hometown and school, pierced by the curious and sometimes taunting looks of her classmates, after her father’s downfall. Who was she really? And why did her entire body tingle at Skip’s nearness?]

-----. Cindy and the Fella. Duets vol. 89: 2 Romantic Comedies. Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Books, 2002.

[“Two wonderfully whimsical holiday stories.” See also J. Diamond, Calling All Glass Slippers. Backcover: Cindy McChad can’t believe it when her fiancé breaks up with her … by e-mail, no less! Never willing to accept defeat, she heads to California to win back her man. When she meets bumbling professor Hugh Bemling – who’s in love with her fiancé’s new girlfriend! – the two make a pact to fix this mess. Now if only Cindy could figure out which fella is really right for her! Flyleaf: “I love this song!” Cindy exclaimed. She began to shimmy. “Take me in your arms.” Hugh’s throat tightened, and he looped one arm around her waist and took her hand in his. Before he knew it, they were pressed together so tight that he could practically measure Cindy’s bra size. For the first time he understood why the Puritans had disapproved of dancing. Those fools! Caught in the moment, Hugh lifted her chin and touched his lips to hers. When her tongue flicked against his mouth, he claimed a deep, thorough kiss. What was happening? Shocked, he drew back. “Hugh, are you upset?” she asked worriedly. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault.” “No, it’s not. We shouldn’t have tempted fate.” She caught his upper arms as if to steady him. “Look, I have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” She collected her purse and went out the door. His midsection still suspiciously tight, Hugh glanced at his statue of a fertility goddess standing in the corner. He could have sworn she wore a Mona Lisa smile. “This is all your fault.”]

-----. Calling all Glass Slippers. Duets vol. 90: Romantic Comedies. Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Books, 2002.

[See also J. Diamond, Cindy and the Fella. Backcover: Laura Ellison never thought her comic play about love would win an award. Now her alma mater is performing it, and her ex is directing! Ten years ago Jared Benton broke her heart, and she knows fairy-tale endings don’t exist. When she notices that people who read the play start to fall in love, Laura’s at a loss for words. Even she’s succumbing to her play’s charms … and Jared’s looking more and more like a prince, not a pumpkin! Flyleaf: “We can get together again tonight –” “No,” Laura said. “What do you mean, no?” “No dating and no more sex,” she said. “I’m sorry, Jared, but I think we need to keep our distance.” He understood, even if he didn’t share her apprehension. “We could do nooners,” he said hopefully. When she shook her head, her red hair gave a suggestive bounce. “It’s not that simple.” “Don’t tell me you’re not tempted.” Pink tinged her cheeks. “Please accept my decision. I’m sure I’m doing the right thing. We both lost control last night, and, well, wonderful as it was, I don’t want to repeat the experience.” Glumly Jared accepted that she meant it. But it wasn’t only sex they were giving up. He wanted to spend more time together doing things – dancing, joking, talking. Yes, it was probably for the best. So why did he feel as if he’d lost something?]

Dickens, Charles. “Cinderella.” In “Frauds on the Fairies,” The Works of Charles Dickens: Miscellaneous Papers, Vol I. London: Chapman and Hall, 1929. Pp. 395-400.

[A half-playful, half-serious attack on Cruikshank’s moralistic “Hop o’ My Thumb, by way of parody: Cinderella, age four, is a member of the Juvenile Bands of Hope. When she is nine her mother dies and is buried by a chorus singing Number forty-two, ‘O come.’ Father remarries a cross widow lady with two proud tyrannical daughters, but dies soon for having to shave in cold water according to the recommendations of Medical Appendix B. and C. The orphan is forced to work among cinders and thus her name. As she works she occupies her mind with the general question of the Ocean Penny Postage and the orations of Nehemiah Nicks. Her grandmother helps her to the ball aided by “an American Pumpkin! American, because in some parts of that independent country, there are prohibitory laws against the sale of alcoholic drinks in any form” and because America produced among many great pumpkins the glory of her sex, Mrs. Colonel Bloomer. At the ball the king is unable to greet her because a delegate from the United States has just moved that the King do take a chair and the motion has been seconded and carried unanimously. But the Prince, covered from head to foot with Total Abstinence Medals, greets her and falls in love. The ball has to end at a quarter of twelve because an inspired delegate drank all the water in the decanter and fainted, so the King called for an adjournment until tomorrow. Next night Cinderella overstays, and loses her shoe fleeing. The Prince advertises in the newspaper (in his land there are as many newspapers as there are in the United States), and innumerable ladies answer the ad, but none fit the slipper until Cinderella slips the shoe on, wearing her sensible blue bloomers from her grandmother, without which the Prince would probably never have seen her feet. As queen, Cinderella applies herself to enlightened, liberal, & free principles: Anyone who eats or drinks differently from the queen is imprisoned for life, and any who differs in opinion is deemed a designing ruffian and abandoned monster. She also “threw open the right of voting, and of being elected to public offices, and of making the laws, to the whole of her sex; who thus came to be always gloriously occupied with public life and whom nobody dared to love. And they all lived happily ever afterwards” (p. 400).]

Dieker, Nicole. "The Most Indispensable Thing." In Frugal and the Beast: And Other Financial Fairy Tales. Self-published as part of The Billfold, 2018. Pp. 104.

Dieker offers a successful retelling of the Cap L'Rushes storyline by focusing on wealth. When an arrogant father asks his daughters what humanity needs to thrive, each follows the usual pattern of wanting to please their patriach with answers related to family and love, but the youngest daughter replies that wealth is essential and stands by her answer. Years pass, and the father's health fails. He learns the hard way that his older and middle daughters cannot value love and family enough when he is ill, but he hopes to tell the youngest, who has now earned a fortune, of his regrets. He is likely beyond speech as she takes over his expensive medical care.

Note: This anthology contains a Cinderella and a Beauty and the Beast tale among others, but they are not worth one's time if comparing stories. The anthology is a tool to help market a personal finance website, so I am only annotating the story that might lead to interesting classroom comparisons. [Annotatipn by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Dijs, Carla. Cinderella. New York: Dell, 1991.

Dixon, W. MacNeile (1866-1945). Cinderella’s Garden. With Illustrations by George Morrow. New York: Oxford University Press, [c. 1930].

[Dust jacket: A book for the young of all ages. Three small boys at the seashore watch a crab crawl under a stone and disappear in the sand. When they dig for the crab they find themselves in a cave which leads through a professor’s study into Cinderella’s garden, where they meet their cousin Nancy and adventures akin to those of Alice in Wonderland begin. The end papers include a map of the two lands of dreams beyond the Wan Water, one near the mountains of the moon, where dark things happen, and the other under the sun where there be many marvells in the warm countrie. On the moon side occur adventures with giants, witches, and divels many; on the sun side are giant fowl, fays, the unicorn, the cameleppard that eateth of the palm trees, and fairy godmothers. Cinderella’s cottage is in a walled garden south of the Wan Water. It is graced with a fountain, a cuckoo lodge, a summer house and, to the north, a dark tower on the moon side and a round tower toward the sun. Outside the wall, to the south, is a school of experimenters and Pottlepo farm. The professor’s room is situated in the high rochs beyond the cave off the sandy beach where the small boys enter. Dixon was a Professor of English at University of Glasgow (MA Dublin, D.Litt Glasgow) who wrote extensively on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.]

Ditchoff, Pamela. Mrs. Beast. West Palm Beach, Fl: Stay Thirsty Press, 2009.

[A complex retelling and sequel to Beauty and the Beast with a significant discussion of Cinderella. For a more detailed description, please read the full annotation in the Beauty and the Beast section, found here.]

Dobbs, Mary Lou. The Cinderella Salesman. Rockville, New York: Farnsworth, 1982.

Dokey, Cameron. Before Midnight. New York: Simon Pulse, 2007.

[Dokey’s novel is part of the Once Upon a Time series and mixes themes of family, identical twins, and Cinderella based on the Perrault version of the fairy tale. This version contains a positive representation of the stepmother and portrays the initial problems in the family as Cendrillon, the main character, fails to reveal that she is not a servant. Dokey shifts the villainy to the father as he schemes to control the kingdom and punishes his new wife and her children as much as Cendrillon. The novel is suitable for young adults.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]
 

Donnelly, Jennifer. Stepsister. Scholastic Press, 2019.

Donnelly provides a sequel to the basic Cinderella tale by focusing on the plot of the second stepsister, Isabelle. The author weaves Fate, Chance, and the Fairy Queen into a discussion of how society can train women to become bitter. The author explores agency but ultimately relies on the supernatural assistance seen in Cinderella tales. The book is marketed for grades 8-12 although the heavy-handed morals and small chapters suggest it is better suited to a middle school audience. [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Donoghue, Emma. Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins. New York: Joanna Cotler Books, 1997.

[This collection of fairy tale revisions contains an emphasis on gender with additional lesbian and transgender themes. Each tale feeds into the next story so that the stories occur as conversations between characters who often appear in more than one tale.
The stories include “The Tale of the Shoe,” “The Tale of the Bird,” The Tale of the Rose,” “The Tale of the Apple,” The Tale of the Handkerchief,” “The Tale of the Hair,” The Tale of the Brother,” “The Tale of the Spinster,” “The Tale of the Cottage,” “The Tale of the Skin,” “The Tale of the Needle,” “The Tale of the Voice,” and “The Tale of the Kiss.”] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

-----. “The Tale of the Shoe.” In Donoghue, Emma. Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins. New York: Joanna Cotler Books, 1997. Pp. 1-8.

[Donoghue offers a progressive Cinderella where the heroine overcome by grief learns to know herself and her desires. The story begins with the heroine grieving after her mother’s death. She retreats into herself and becomes consumed by her pain; she cleans until she becomes exhausted as a way to escape herself: “Nobody made me do the things I did, nobody scolded me, nobody punished me but me. The shrill voices were all inside” (p. 2). One day, a friend of the girl’s mother arrives, gives the girl new clothes, spends time with her, and takes her to a series of balls. At the end of each night, the woman asks the heroine has she “Had enough?” of the festivities (p. 4). Between each ball, the woman helps the girl to transform her perception of the world and herself. On the third night, the Prince proposes. The heroine runs away, leaving only a shoe behind. The girl sees her friend and finally realizes her beauty and the heroine’s feelings for her companion. She decides to be with her friend instead saying the Prince would find someone else to fit the slipper “if he looks long enough” (p. 8).] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

-----. “The Tale of the Skin.” In Donoghue, Emma. Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins. New York: Joanna Cotler Books, 1997. Pp. 145-164.

[Donoghue offers an unusual retelling of the Catskin Cinderella variant. A king and queen were extremely close, and the king also had a pet donkey on which he doted. When the queen dies, the king loses his mind and has the donkey come to sleep in his bedchamber. His courtiers urge him to remarry, but he wants a woman who resembles his wife; the courtiers search but find no one who looks like the queen. One day, the king sees his daughter and falls in love with her. The courtiers encourage her to humor her father and flirt with him while they seek better doctors. The girl’s friend, a flower woman, advises her in the courtship, and soon the girl requests three dresses, the colors of the sun, moon, and stars. The flower woman sews each dress, so the girl is protected from her father’s desires for nearly a year, but the dresses are finished eventually. The girl then asks for the skin of the donkey, which she assumes will stop her father, but when he places the skin beside her, she is truly horrified, not just at the idea of incest but at how the father will use and destroy whatever he claims to care for. The flower woman tells the heroine to escape, and she flees, taking her mother’s wedding band, the three dresses, and the donkey skin with her. She survives in the wild for many months, before arriving in another kingdom. Huntsmen bring her to the Prince, dressed as a wild creature, and the man gives the girl a job in the kitchen. The heroine is smitten with his physical appearance, and at a holiday some time later, she escapes from the kitchen, washes, and tries on all three of the dresses. That night, she arrives at the ball in one of the dresses, and the confused Prince suspects that he knows her. She leaves him at the end of the ball and puts the skin back on but continues to wear the wedding band. Her lover searches for the girl, and when he comes to the kitchen, she expects him to recognize her. He questions her, but the girl does not reveal her presence at the ball, and when the prince leaves without realizing that she was his dance partner, the girl becomes furious. She places the wedding ring in the soup “for him to choke on” (p. 162) and arranges the three dresses by the river to make it appear as if she committed suicide. She then travels back to her original kingdom and discovers that a cousin rules since her father’s death, and because she does not aspire for her original status, she goes to stay with the flower woman.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Dooley. E. J. Cinderella Up-To-Date; or, The Lover, The Lackey and the Little Glass Slipper. E. J. Dooley, 1903.

Douglas, Amanda Minnie (1831-1916). A Modern Cinderella. Chicago: M. A. Donohue, 1913.

Duncan, Sara Jeannette (1861-1922). Cousin Cinderella. Ottawa: Tecumseh Press, 1994.

Eklund, Mary Louise. “A Charming Murder.” In Terribly Twisted Tales. Ed. Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg. New York: Daw Books, 2009. Pp. 65-78.

[In this retelling, a detective records the confession of Estella, Cinderella’s stepsister, after she beats the fairy tale heroine to death with Cinderella’s glass slipper on the princess’ first wedding anniversary. Estella wants to tell her side of the story and reveal the truth of Cinderella’s power-hungry ways. The stepsister describes the courtship of her mother and Claus Van Schouwen during which her mother overlooked the protestations of Cordelia and Estella whenever they interacted with the cruel Cindy. After the betrothal, the famed heroine turned vicious and began tormenting her family, leading to her father’s death. Estella insists that all three girls were invited to the ball but that Cinderella refused to attend. During the festivity, the Prince was attracted to Estella until Cinderella arrived and appeared to enchant him with potentially dark magic. Once she became engaged to Albert Charming, Cinderella used the media to torment her relatives until the stepmother fell ill and Cordelia fled town. During their first year of marriage, Albert began an affair with Estella. At the anniversary party, Estella attempts to make an arrangement with Cinderella in order to provide for her family and secure her relationship, but the princess mocks her. Overcome by rage, Estella violently kills Cinderella before fleeing to Albert. Once he vows to look after her family, the stepsister waits for the police to hear her confession at her home. The detective recording her story is so moved that he passes the information on to the media, and he hopes that the jury will be sympathetic at her trail.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Elmer, Isabel Lincoln. Cinderella Rockefeller. New York: Freundlich Books, 1987.

[See the entry under Autobiography.]

English, Clara. Children in the Wood. New York: McLoughlin, [18??].

Erskine, John. Cinderella’s Daughter and Other Sequels and Consequences. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1930.

[The Prince falls in love with his own daughter and is confronted with his twisted desires at the ball. She is patient as Griselda. Includes Beauty and Beast components in her retreat to safety.]

Farjeon, Eleanor (1881-1965). The Glass Slipper. Buccaneer Books (Harmony Raine & Company), 1981. Reissued Lippencott, 1984.

[A well-told story of Ella and her friendly talking animals, who help her to endure the nasty stepsisters Arethusa and Araminta and the wicked stepmother until she finds her happy ending with the Prince, who had searched long for the Princess from Nowhere. At the ball she overstays the deadline but the other women simply think she is a serving girl and pay no attention. The prince likewise ignores her, until he learns to see better. In thirty chapters. See Ellin Greene’s discussion under Criticism. See also Farjeon’s musical The Glass Slipper, performed in London in 1944 and 1945 under Pantomime Productions.]

Fairly Twisted Tales for a Horribly Ever After. Edited by Veronica Park, Ashley Ruggirello, and Kisa Whipkey. N.p.: REUTS Publications, 2014. Kindle Edition.  

This anthology represents several authors merging the best of fairy tales and horror. It is meant for adults and those familiar with the works of both genres. The titles do not give away what tale or horror element is referenced, which is why I provide the list below, and the collection includes several different takes on more popular tales like Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast. While many similar collections exist, this anthology represents a superior grouping of tales. The book contains the winning stories from the Grimm & Classic Tales competition. The explanation of the contest can be found in the brief introduction by Ashley Ruggirello.  

Carley Drake, “Agrabah: The 7th Gate of Hell” [Aladdin] 
Summer Wier, “Beauty Eternal” [Snow White] 
Sam Hardy, “Beautiful Nightmare” [Cinderella] 
Madeleine Lee, “Charlie's Girl” [Cinderella] 
Jessica Dall, “Comedy and Tragedy” [The Little Mermaid] 
Sarah Remy, “Corbin and the Beast” [Beauty and the Beast] 
C. L. Denault, “Cry of the Windwalker” [Rumplestiltskin] 
Kathleen Palm, “Dark Wolf” [Little Red Riding Hood] 
Debra Vega, “Deadman's Ball” [Cinderella] 
Drew Hayes, “Down with the Ship” [Peter Pan] 
Debra Vega, “Earlobe” [Little Red Riding Hood] 
Summer Weir, “Fall Again” [The Little Mermaid] 
Drew Hayes, “Fool's Errand” [Rumplestiltskin]  
C.C. Dowling, “Forever Jupiter Sky” [The Pied Piper] 
Meg Faulkner, “Match Girl” [The Little Match Girl] 
Carly Drake, “The Merry Wolves of Nottingham” [Beauty and the Beast] 
Phil Stamper, “Prodigy” [The Three Little Pigs] 
Tiffany Rose, “Red as Blood” [Snow White] 
Melody Winter, “Shifting Seas” [Beauty and the Beast and The Fisherman and His Wife] 
C.C. Dowling, “Sonya and the Sea Witch” [A Little Mermaid sequel] 
Suzanne Morgen, “Sweetheart Ronin” [Cinderella] 
Kathleen Palmer, “Together” [Snow-White and Rose-Red] 
T.A. Brock, “The Ugly Game” [The Snow Queen] 
Drew Hayes, “The Wolf in the Woods” [Little Red Riding Hood] 
Summer Wier, “Undead Soles” [The Elves and the Shoemaker] 

Feather, Jane. The Diamond Slipper. New York: Bantam Books, 1997.

[Dust jacket: What comes to mind when you think of a diamond slipper? Cinderella, perhaps? That’s what Cordelia Brandenburg imagines when her godparents arrange a marriage for her with a man she’s never met–a marriage that will take her to Versailles, far from the rigid confines of her childhood home. The betrothal gift is a charm bracelet with a tiny, glittering diamond slipper attached … as befits a journey into a fairy-tale future. But Cordelia–young, headstrong and completely adorable–runs into trouble right away. Her escort to the wedding is the golden-eyed sensual, teasing Viscount Leo Kierston. For Cordelia, it’s love at first sight. Yet Leo seems to see only a spoiled child–perhaps it’s the way she cheats at chess–and Cordelia is determined to show him the woman beneath. There is, however, no escaping her arranged marriage. She’s devastated to discover that her new husband is an utterly loathsome tyrant who will stop at nothing to satisfy his twisted desires. Cordelia struggles courageously against a man determined to break her spirit. But her husband has a secret, one that will bring down the vengeance of her beloved Viscount Kierston.]

Ferré, Rosario. “The Poisoned Story.” In The Youngest Doll. University of Nebraska, 1991. Pp. 7-18.

[A woman reader is poisoned by the ink of a book of fairy tales, and by the time she dies we see that her life has been a fairy tale gone wrong. A proletarian Cinderella who married an impoverished sugarcane plantation owner, she metamorphosed into a wicked stepmother to his daughter and is poisoned by the patriarchal fantasies she swallowed when young.]

Fleury, Jacqueline. The Cinderella Bride. Thorndike, Maine: Thorndike Press, 1990.

Fredrickson, Michael. A Cinderella Affidavit. New York: Tor Doherty Assiciates Book, 1999.

[Backcover: A routine drug bust goes awry in Boston’s Chinatown, killing a police officer as he batters down the door to execute a no-knock search warrant. The police arrest the man, but the court orders them to produce the confidential snitch whose information was the basis of the bust. The search for the informant will plunge lawyers on both sides of the case into the legal battle of their lives. High-placed politicians, Chinese mobsters, and Boston’s power elite will be dragged into court, their fates riding on the identity of this mystery informant, an informant known only as Cinderella. “Frederickson draws upon his legal expertise for a cunning story of crime, corruption, perjury, and murder in Boston”–The Boston Globe. “Frederickson’s insight into the legal process adds authenticity to a fast-paced intriguing, multifaceted tale”–Publisher Weekly. “Frederickson shows grit and an acute sense of humor as he skewers the entire legal class system, blue to white collar”–Entertainment Weekly. Flyleaf: “A legal thriller so savvy and well written it’s hard to believe it’s a first novel. The dialogue is literate, often funny, and all the characters live and breathe”–Kirkus Reviews. “Move over John Grisham, Esq. Watch out Scott Turow”–Lawyer’s Journal. “A witty, intelligent journey through big firms and prosecutors’ offices that should be familiar to any lawyer”–Virginia Lawyers Weekly. “A towering achievement!”–Massachusetts Bar Journal. “A book you can’t put down; exciting, full of twists and turns, it is a fast-paced thriller”–Barry Reed, author of The Verdict.]

Fulton, Maude. Cinderella of the Storm. Chicago, 1928.

Gadoury, Chantel. Allerleirauh. Second edition. The Parliament House, 2017.

Gadoury creates an unfortunate retelling of the Catskin tradition by having the father rape his daughter and then focusing most of the remainder of the novel on the idea of overcoming trauma with little of the second half of the traditional story appearing. The initial plot of the dresses is referenced. No particular Catskin variant lies at the heart of this revision. [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Galenorn, Yasmine. “Princess Charming.” In Once Upon a Kiss: 17 Romance Faerie Tales. Fiddlehead Press, 2017. Pp. 140-164.

[Galenorn retells both Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast via a series of letters. The story uses adult and frank discussions of sex and boundaries as Beauty ends up with the Beast after finding a potion so that he can be human for three days a month. The Cinderella character finds the prince boring and vain and flees to the bathroom where she meets his engaging sister. By the third ball, she confesses who she is, and the princess is willing to leave her kingdom to be with the Cinderella character. They end up in a kingdom that welcomes all couples and invite Beauty and her husband to visit. This retelling is more suitable for older teens or adults, and it offers a way to blend two famous stories while also keeping the core elements intact.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Galitz, Cathleen. Wyoming Cinderella. New York: Silhouette Books, 2001. No. 1373.

[Backcover: Georgeous multimillionaire William Hawk was caught in a tornado-and her name was Ella McBride! The tantalizing nanny brought order to his children but left Hawk’s senses spinning out of control. A massive, primal desire hammered at his resistance. He simply must keep his luscious live-in temptation out of his bedroom! But how to avoid her bedroom eyes? Ella felt utterly transformed! In Hawk’s arms she was the most beautiful woman on earth, a sensuous princess, his Wyoming Cinderella. And with just a little coaxing, this sexy older man had introduced her to womanhood. Now would it be Ella’s turn to usher him into husbandhood? Flyleaf: “Would it help if I apologized for kissing you last night?” “A lady usually doesn’t like to hear a man say he’s sorry for kissing her,” Ella replied, stepping away from the stove. Hawk had expected her to give a sigh of relief. Instead, she faced him down with a spatula and the most refreshing sincerity he’d encountered in years. “What do you suggest we do, then? Would silverware at ten paces be fitting?” “I prefer steak knives myself.” “Perhaps if you’d be willing to call a truce, I’d offer to set the table.” Hawk reached around her to open the silverware drawer. The lightest touch of his arm against her body was enough to set her imagination sailing for erotic destinations. The thought of those arms wrapped around her waist … Of his big, masculine hands caressing her … Of stepping back and cuddling her body against his in a fit as perfect as the two spoons he lifted out of the silverware drawer. Conclusion: “A once-upon-a-time skeptic, Ella allowed herself to accept the fairy tale ending that truly belonged to her. Circumstances of birth and lack of opportunity were nothing in comparison to how this wonderful man made her feel. No longer the ugly duckling of her youth, she was transformed into a real-life Cinderella and made beautiful not ty the twirling of a godmother’s wand, but by the power of Hawk’s eternal love” (p. 185).]

Garbera, Katherine. Cinderella’s Convenient Husband. New York: Silhouette Books, 2002.

[Backcover: Meet the Connellys of Chicago — wealthy, powerful, and rocked by scandal, betrayal … and passion! A second chance at love? Wealthy Chicago attorney Seth Connelly told himself he’d married Lynn McCoy only to save her family ranch. The Sagebrush, Montana, spread had once been his salvation, though Lynn had been his nemesis. But the troublemaking brat had turned into a fresh-faced beauty. Though only days from foreclosure, Lynn was no Cinderella waiting to be rescued. Just as well, since silver-eyed Seth was no Prince Charming. She fantasized about the only kiss they’d ever shared, fourteen years ago, and yearned to be held again in his rock-hard arms. To be made his wife, in every sense of the word. Seth wanted marriage, too – but without love. Or so his loner heart said. Passionate, powerful, and provocative. Fly leaf: Around Chi-Town: Looks like the Connellys have been plunged into scandal yet again–Grant Connelly’s former lover, Ms. Angie Donahue, has been arrested! Sources report that Ms. Donahue, the mother of Grant’s illegitimate son, Seth Connelly, is the niece of Chicago’s most influential mob boss, Jimmy Kelly. Police investigations leading up to her arrest indicate that the Kellys may be behind the recent spate of troubles that have plagued the prestigious Connelly family these last few months. And how is Seth Connelly, a well-respected attorney in the Windy City, taking the news? It means that Seth has taken an undetermined leave of absence from his law practice and from Chicago. Sources close to the thirty-two-year-old bachelor say he has been devastated by his mother’s revelation, but won’t reveal his location. The Connelly troubles don’t end there. Following police questioning, Grant’s longtime assistant, Charlotte Masters, has also gone missing – and rumor has it that her life may be in danger. And she’s not the only one. Police report that hotshot P.I.Tom Reynolds, hired to protect the family, has turned up dead, the apparent victim of foul play. In the wake of these latest disclosures, we expect local sympathies to be with Seth, a reserved lone wolf who never became a true bachelor-about-town like so many of the Connelly sons. Chicago awaits his return! Seth Connelly–Deceived and betrayed by his heritage once again, he runs away, back to his cowboy roots, hoping to find himself, to heal … Lynn McCoy–she knows what it’s like to be betrayed by someone you love – and now she, too, is paying the price. Angie Donahue–Seth’s mother; she allowed his father Grant Connelly, to raise him, but the havoc she wreaks finds her son wherever he hides.]

-----. Overnight Cinderella. New York: Silhouette Books, 2001.

[Backcover: Duke Merchon was light years ahead of co-worker Cami Jones in bedroom expertise. Still, the plain-Jane stirred his fantasies, but Duke vowed to keep a safe distance from her thousand-watt smile. Orphaned as a child, he’d learned to deny his boyhood dreams of love and family. Then Cami suddenly traded in her modest librarian façade for a stunning grace and beauty, and Duke felt his firm footing in Bachelorville slipping. And fast. For he couldn’t resist showing this newly sensuous woman the laws of physical love. And when Duke held his overnight Cinderella in his arms, he felt transformed … into Cami’s Prince Charming! “Describe this dream lover,” Duke said, teasing himself with the idea of her voice painting sensual images. Cami smiled widely and closed her eyes. “This man of mine is a white knight of old. He’s fought hard in battle and lost everything dear to him, but he craves ties to the land and the future. He sees me in his future. He sees past my surface to the passionate woman underneath. The woman I’ve always longed to be. He unlocks me from my slumber as surely as Prince Charming awakened Sleeping Beauty with one pure kiss.” Duke stared down at Cami. Her eyes were closed, her head tipped back and her body pressed to his. He realized she must be a virgin. Only a woman who’d never shared her body with a man would expect a pure kiss to awaken her desire. Only a woman as sweet as Cami would share the fantasy of her soul with him. And it moved him. But could it move him to marriage? - Flyleaf. Yes it could. Today he was marrying the sexy little tornado that had shaken his world and rearranged it … What had he done to deserve her? (p. 183).]

George, Charles. A Country Cinderella. New York: Fitzgerald Publishing Corporation, 1931.

George, Jessica Day. Princess of Glass. New York: Bloomsbury, 2010.

[George offers this retelling as a sequel to her novel Princess of Glass, a re-envisioning of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Princess Poppy, one of the former twelve princesses, participates in a royalty-exchange program only to find herself caught up in a Cinderella story gone wrong. As she stays at the home of Lord Richard and encounters Prince Christian, she also meets Eleanora, an orphan and noble forced to become a maid after her father’s estate is ruined. The young woman cannot appear to do anything correctly, and finally, The Corley, a witch with her own back-story of loss and grief, seduces the girl with promises of a better life. The Corley is the source of Eleanora’s incompetence and convinces the girl to pose as Lady Ella, a princess, in order to win the hand of Prince Christian. With each ball, the enchantment on Prince Christian grows and the spells on Eleanora strengthen with her feet slowly turning to glass. Because of her past experiences, Poppy sees through the black magic affecting every one, and between her cleverness, knitting, and rudimentary white magic, she helps save everyone by agreeing to pose as Ellen and face The Corley, who makes the enchanted Prince attempt to find his true bride. Christian chooses Poppy, the young woman he loves, rather than the false bride, Eleanora. Poppy’s quick thinking saves everyone involved, and they escape The Corey stronghold, and Roger, another noble who loved and remembered Ellen before her time as maid, pledges his desire for her hand, and the book ends with multiple impending weddings.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Gill, Judy Griffith. The Cinderella Search. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1998.

[Lissa Wilkins had kissed enough toads disguised as Prince Charming to learn not to trust men. So now, with Steven Jackson on the scene, she steered clear of his Prince Charming vibes. Steven had dated lots of women, but no one fit the glass slipper of his dreams. He hoped to buy Lissa’s father’s hotel, but Lissa had her own plan. She would play ghost and scare the unwanted buyer away, except that she came crashing through the ceiling into his arms, where she felt those delicious vibes all over again. But she fled, leaving behind one ugly sandal. Steven set up a booth at the town festival, insisting that he would try the shoe on every woman in town in hope of figuring out who the woman who fell through the ceiling was. Even if the shoe did not fit he promised to kiss the one who tried, which turned all the women on, except Lissa. She held out, but at the end, Steven proved so charming that even though she knew that charmers were bad news, no matter how intoxicating their kisses, she let the slipper be fitted where it belonged. Still, she distrusted Steve. But at last she agreed to marry him, and the hotel will stay in the family — for the grandchildren.]

Glover, Tanzania. Thickerella. N.p., 2020.

[Glover attempts to use the Cinderella tale as a framework for a modern romantic comedy with African American representation. This extremely adult retelling spends more time on family trauma and romance than folklore elements. Additionally, themes of weight shaming and child neglect appear. The book is the first part of the Faded Fairytales series, which is self-published.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Gordon, Karen Elizabeth. The Red Shoes and Other Tattered Tales. Normal, Illinois: Dalkey Archive Press, 1996.

[Tatters of half-a-dozen tales (The Glass Shoe, The Ginderbread Variations, The Little Match Girl, Don Juan Is a Woman, The Red Shoes) sewn together with notes in an ABC alphabet romp through the language of sensuality. In the Dramatis Personae Cinderella is the “resiliently abused stepchild whose secret rebellions in both fact and fantasy forge her liberty. Seeing past mere wish fulfillment, she unmasks social form and ceremony in her unabashed dealings with the prince” (p. 7). She appears in such entries as BUBBLES (from The Glass Shoe), a letter to her father wondering how he ever came to lay his head among the bosoms of this family that works her to death and calls her Ashtray, Dustrag, Mopsy, and Smudge — “I was so hungry I started gnawing at my cuticles” (p. 26); or COAT: A fine coat of lust lay over every thoughtful surface of the room. “This could be either Cinderella out of her drawers, or Jonquil, thinking of love as ‘a little adventure looking for the right surface to happen upon’ or ‘stretching myself out, in case someone wants to leave a message plastered to my body’” (p. 35); or SCHMATTE (from The Glass Shoe): I scratched my schmatte and / proceeded with the floor. “Cinderella, or Cendrine, as she is called in Cendrine and the Garcon Flambé, a video by Jean-Jacques Passera, picked up a few Yiddish expressions from the shops in the village, so it is not surprising to come across entries in her diary like: ‘I was polishing the tsatskelehs when the doorbell rang and I opened the door to a dwarf selling hairbrushes’ or ‘I schlepped my bucket up the front stairs to do Agfa’s room, but her door was locked and a sign that read MUSE PLEASE dangled from the doorknob, so I figured she was at it with her pathetic fallacies, and tiptoed off for une petite somme in the attic instead’” (p. 135).]

Grandpapa Pease’s Cinderella. Albany: Fisk and Little, 1855?.

Griffiths, Michael. Cinderella With Amnesia. London: Inter-Varsity Press, 1975.

-----. Get Your Act Together, Cinderella!. London: Inter-Varsity Press, 1989.

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Just Ella. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

[Dust jacket: Like every commoner in the land, Ella dreams of going to the ball and marrying Prince Charming. But after she is chosen to marry the prince, life with the royal family is not the “happily ever after” that Ella imagined. Pitiless and cold, the royals try to mold her into their vision of a princess. Ella’s life becomes a meaningless schedule of protocol, which she fears she will never grasp. And Prince Charming’s beautiful face hides a vacant soul. Even as her life turns to misery, the stories persist that Ella’s fairy godmother sent her to the ball. How else could the poor girl wear a beautiful gown, arrive in a coach, and dance in those glass slippers? But there is no fairy godmother to help Ella escape the deadening life of the castle. She learns that she must do things on her own, makes her departure. The prince ends up with the step family, who are more easily molded. Ella escapes, mindful of an old woman from the village who said, “Happy was like beauty - in the eye of the beholder. Ella makes contact with an old friend Jed. But more important, she likes the way she is living her new life as she goes back to work.]

Harbison, Elizabeth. Emma and the Earl. New York: Silhouette Romance, 1999.

[A Cinderella Brides Romance, no, 1410: These women are living out their very own fairy tales, but will they live happily ever after? Backcover: In love with an earl? Impossible! American Emma Lawrence knew she was too ordinary to ever have a British aristocrat fall in love with her! But when she found herself locked in the earl of Palliser’s embrace, her heart couldn’t help but hope. Now ensconced on Brice Palliser’s lavish estate, Emma saw how different her everyday life was from the earl’s. And though Brice made her feel like the belle of the ball, when the clock struck midnight, would Emma be left with a pumpkin carriage, or the keys to Brice’s heart? Flyleaf: It looks like a fairy tale. Emma smiled up into Brice’s eyes, “It’s positively enchanting. Even the hardest of hearts would be moved by this kind of beauty.” Brice looked down at her in the darkness and realized his hard heart was moved, but not by the lights or the garden or the star-filled sky. Their movements slowed until finally they were standing still, locked in each other’s arms, gazing into each other’s eyes. He wanted to kiss her. He was fairly certain she wanted the same thing. He looked at her. “I’d never want to hurt you, Emma.” “Hurt me? What do you mean?” After a moment, Brice shook his head. “I only meant that I would never try and take advantage of your trust. Remember that. No matter what happens.”]

-----. Plain Jane Marries the Boss. New York: Silhouette Romance, 1999.

[A Cinderella Brides Romance, no. 1416: These women are living out their own fairy tales, but will they live happily ever after? Backcover: “Schedule a wedding … and find me a wife!” It had taken five years, but Jane Miller’s dynamic, handsome and commanding boss had finally proposed — even though she knew he’d never seen the shy, yearning glances she’d sent him. She was so happy she could cry — and did when she heard the rest of the plan! Because although this was a real wedding, it wouldn’t be a real marriage. Trey Breckenridge III had buisness mergers in the making, and needed a wife to seal the deal. But “Plain” Jane made an additional wedding vow — that before the honeymoon was over, Trey would realize just what he’d been missing all these years. Flyleaf: “You really saved my life tonight.” Jane’s cheeks flushed. “I don’t think that’s true.” Trey took her hand in his. “It’s true, he said. “And I won’t forget it. But at the moment I’m more concerned about what it will take to convince my secretary, who is a tremendously professional woman as well as a splendid actress, to be my fiancée for just a little bit longer.” Tiny shivers ran up Jane’s bare arms, though whether it was from his touch or from his proposition, she couldn’t say. “You could try just asking me.” “Would you be my fiancée, Jane?” She smiled reassuringly, ignoring the voice inside her that said she was betraying herself and that she’d never be able to keep up this act without a huge emotional risk. “Yes, Trey. You can count on me.” Epilogue: Trey reached for Jane’s hand under the table and leaned close. “Care to dance, Mrs. Brekenridge?” She frowned and looked around. “There’s no music.” “Ah, that’s where you’re wrong.” He stood up and pulled her into his arms. “We hear our own music.” She leaned her cheek against his shoulder and smiled as he tightened his arm around her and started to sway gently. “I hear it now,” she said. Outside the window, the silver bells from the church where they had just renewed their vows rang across the distance.]

-----. Annie and the Prince. New York: Silhouette Romance, 2000.

[A Cinderella Brides Romance, no. 1423: These women are living out their very own fairy tales, but will they live happily ever after? Backcover: Someday her prince would come. Librarian Annie Barimer always played by the rules and the result was dullsville. So when she had a chance to tutor two little princesses, well, how could she resist? Soon Annie found herself working in a faraway castle — and falling for her very own prince! Or she’d go after him! Prince Johann was everything she’d longed for, and more. Handsome, commanding, yet tender, he was just about perfect. Now if only he would guarantee her dreams came true! Flyleaf: It was joy he was seeing and hearing. His children and Annie were laughing as they pounded snow into balls and tossed them at each other. Annie looked at him then, and something between them connected and he nearly smiled back. What would it feel like, Hans wondered, to just give in to the urge to take her into his arms? What would it be like to kiss her? He was overwhelmed by the urge to try. God, she was lovely. Maybe it was the soft light, or the drifting snow, or the crisp chill air, but suddenly Annie looked delicious enough to eat. And he was hungry.]

Hardy, Alice Dale. The Flyaways and Cinderella. Illustrated by Walter S. Rogers. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1925.

[The first of several Flyaway novels dealing with fairy tales. The Flyaway family — Pa, Ma, Tommy, and Susie — is “part real and part fairy.” They live in a great tree high above the ground. “Ma Flyaway was a stout, good-natured lady, with a smiling face and jolly eyes. She loved three things. One was children, the second was cooking of all sorts, including making the of pies, puddings, and cakes, and the third was to dress in silks and satins and pretend she was a Fairy Godmother or a Queen” (p. 4). Under pressure from the children they decide to go fairylanding in Pa’s dirigible in hope of finding Cinderella so that Susie might try on the glass slipper and Tommy see the Prince’s sword. On the way they bump into Jack’s beanstalk and visit with Mother Hubbard, then finally find Cinderella weeping by a stream. The Prince has been taken captive by three Black Robbers and a mean elf. Pa sets out to rescue the Prince and does so with the help of a magic whistle and the ingenuity of Ma and the children, as well as his own cleverness. But once safe back at the palace Cinderella disappears, stolen away by a Glass Man who takes her in a cloud of steam to the Candy King, who would force her to make sugar plums for him. She in turn is rescued with the aid of the dirigible and the threat of dropping rocks on the candy shop, and all return to the palace and then home. Pa promises the children to go fairylanding again. Two of the sequels include The Flyaways Little Red Riding Hood and The Flyaways and Goldilocks.]

Hardy, Sam. “Beautiful Nightmare.” In Fairly Twisted Tales for a Horribly Ever After. Edited by Veronica Park, Ashley Ruggirello, and Kisa Whipkey. N.p.: REUTS Publications, 2014. Kindle edition.  

[The story begins with the prince choosing his Cinderella, but she is killed by a jealous daughter in the house she cleans. The tale shifts to focus on the angry ghost of Cinderella, trapped to relive the same night in a destructive pattern. The prince slowly faded due to grief. The tale’s protagonist tries to help the ghost of Cinderella break her pattern of despair.] [Annotation by Martha M. Johnson-Olin] 

Hare, Walter Ben (1880-1950). A Southern Cinderella. Chicago: T. S. Denison, 1913.

Harrington, Rebie. Cinderella Takes a Holiday in the Northland. New York: F. H. Revell, 1937.

Harwood, J.J.A. The Shadow in the Glass. Harper Collins, 2021.

[Harwood explores dark magic and its effect on the Cinderella tale by adding a Faustian twist to this retelling that moves many of the classic tropes. The stepmother is now a neglectful father and other maids serves as the stepsisters. The lord’s son becomes the would-be prince. Eleanor, the child of a maid, was adopted by a wealthy woman, Mrs. Pembroke, but after the woman died, Mr. Pembroke returned to the girl to service work. When the girl fears Mr. Pembroke’s lust, she hides in the library and locates a book with a demon who offers the girl seven wishes in exchange for her soul. Eleanor means to ration the wishes, but over the course of the plot, they corrupt her.

The first wish is a test to see if the demon’s magic works, and Eleanor soon receives beautiful dancing shoes. The second backfires, and a rival maid dies. Another disrupts the marriage of the lord’s son and so forth. With each wish, Eleanor also finds her feet muddy or blood on her hands. By the end of the book, the wishes are leading to violent deaths, and the police suspect Eleanor who will attempt a final bargain with the demon to try and save her soul.

The ending shows this Cinderella racing away from her lover to try to save herself, and across the plot, the author teases that there may never have been a demon, just a mentally ill and violent young woman reshaping her life and running from the consequences of her actions. The book vacillates in tone between graphic and dark and a typical young-adult adaptation, so those planning to teach the item may want to consider content warnings.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Hawes, Louise. “Ashes.” In Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. Pp. 105-36.

[Hawes retells Cinderella from the Prince’s perspective. His mother, a demanding, harsh, and aggressive queen drove her husband to have an affair with a noble woman in the kingdom before the queen threatened the woman’s life upon learning of the mistress’s identity. When this woman later marries a widower with a daughter, the monarch plots again, and she guides the widower’s daughter until the girl arrives at the ball in a dress that captivates the Prince’s attention. After the wedding, the Prince’s new wife transforms from a quiet girl to a future queen. She is suddenly not the sweet and innocent girl who attracted him as she spends more and more time with the queen, only returning to the Prince at night, where she insists that he recounts his impressions of seeing her beauty before allowing him to make love to her. Eventually, his new wife demands that the Prince execute her stepmother and stepsisters with the support of the queen, but the Prince refuses. For nearly a year, he maintains his position despite his wife’s convenient and entirely feigned illness that causes her to shut him out. Finally, the Prince gives in, and the day of the execution, he finds his wife boasting of how her family died and obtaining a lock of one victim’s hair before the Prince realizes the trap his mother set for his father’s lover: the stepsisters were likely his own siblings. After that night, Cinderella returns to his bed, demanding the usual the story of her glory and beauty. Disheartened by these events, the Prince turns into his father and begins an affair with a dairy maid during the day before returning to his wife at night, who perpetually wants to hear the story of self-flattery again and again.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

-----. Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.

[In this extremely dark collection of fairy tale revisions, Hawes transforms six fairy tales by changing the narrative perspective. For example, the Prince tells of his courtship and pursuit of Cinderella, and the harp tells of how Jack abducted her and inadvertently set her free. Stories include “Dame Nigran’s Tower,” a retelling of Rapunzel; “Pipe Dream,” a Pied Piper variant; “Mother Love,” a version of Hansel and Gretel; “Ashes,” a version of Cinderella; “Evelyn’s Song,” a transformation of Jack and the Beanstalk; and “Diamonda” a revision of Snow White.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Hayes, Margaret Gebbie. The Pussy Cinderella. Philadelphia: G. H. Coughlin, 1915.

Hayes, Sally Tyler. Cinderella and the Spy. New York: Silhouette Books, 2000.

[Backcover: A woman worth waiting for. Undercover Agent Joshua Carter had only wanted to help sweet Amanda Wainwright. Instead, her being seen with him had put the shy secretary’s life in danger … and under his twenty-four-hour protection. But from the moment virginal Amanda stepped into the playboy’s apartment, it was Josh’s life that was on the line, because he still remembered one long-ago, stolen kiss. And although Josh had tried to act honorably by giving Amanda space, her fragile vulnerability still called to him and awakened every male instinct. Now Josh wanted a future. Could he make this inexperienced beauty see beneath the playboy façade to a heart that beat true blue? Flyleaf: “I’m nothing like the woman you normally chase. I’m … ” “What?” he asked gently. “Plain,” she choked. “Ordinary. Boring.” “I’ve never been bored with you, Amanda, and I don’t think there’s anything ordinary about you.” Amanda sighed, not wanting to continue this conversation with him. Josh was rich and dangerous and absolutely gorgeous. She’d seen him in the society pages, photographed with some of the world’s most beautiful women hanging on to his arm. She’d spent more time than she should have looking over those photos, wondering about his life. Fantasizing about him. She was not the kind of woman he dated, not the kind he should notice. “Josh-” she began. “Careful. I’ll think you’re fishing for compliments.” “I’m not. I know what kind of woman I am.” “You don’t have a clue, Amanda, Did you ever stop to think that maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do, either?”]

Hendry, Lee. A Gown For Cinderella. Minneapolis: T. S. Denison, 1951.

Henry, Anne. Cinderella Mom. Harlequin American Romance. New York: Harlequin Books, 1992.

[Calendar of Romance title for the month of May–a special Mother’s Day issue. How can Sara, a widowed mother of two, with a delicious warmth in her veins from the wine, caught up in the strong arms of Prince Charming Julian, explain not coming home to the kids? Must the fairy tale end with the dance at midnight?]

Hillert, Margaret. Cinderella at the Ball. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1970. Also Cleveland: Modern Curriculum, 1970.

[See Perrault under Children’s Illustrated Editions.]

Hines, Jim C. The Stepsister Scheme. New York: Daw Books, 2009.

[Hines offers an amusing beginning to a series of books based on the continuing adventures of Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, with numerous other fairy tale heroes and heroines making an appearance. The first book, The Stepsister Scheme, establishes this fantasy world and reveals what happens to Danielle Whiteshore (the tale’s Cinderella) after she marries. She learns that her mother-in-law covertly helps other heroines in trouble and has a powerful network of magical forces that protect her kingdom. The resources fail when Armand, Prince Charming, is kidnapped forcing Danielle, Snow, and Talia to rescue him. The novel offers a retelling of Cinderella while showing the heroine maturing into a woman capable of eventually helping with the ruling of a kingdom while also exploring themes of love, marriage, and family loyalty. The novel considers the costs of magic, happiness, power, and position. Subsequent books in the series include The Mermaid’s Madness, Red Hood’s Revenge, and The Snow Queen’s Shadow.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Historical Christmas Stories. Harlequin Historical Series. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1989.

[Includes an adaptation of Perrault’s Cinderella.]

Hoadley, John Chipman (1818-1886). Description of the Portable Steam-Engine Cinderella. Boston: A. Holland, 1870.

Hoban, Russell. The Mouse and His Child. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

[“The mouse child’s vision of a happy family, which begins in the toy shop, is shattered when the clockwork father mouse and child are broken and thrown on the rubbish dump. From there, through the cinders and wilderness, they wander on a quest, struggling to survive, hoping to become self-winding and to regain the lost ‘family’”–Gough p. 102)]

Hodge, Rosamund. Gilded Ashes: A Cruel Beauty Novella. New York: Harper Collins, 2014. Kindle edition.

[Set in the same world as Cruel Beauty, this novella retells the story of Cinderella with demons, stepsisters, and the backdrop of the ball. The bond between the young women is emphasized as both the Cinderella character and elder stepsister try to protect the youngest sibling. The mother and stepmother are also positioned as equally desperate women trying but failing to look out after their daughters.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Holyoke, Hetty. “Cinderella.” In Peterson’s Magazine 31, June, 1857. Pp. 199-202.

[A plain girl, always in trouble at school, she dresses in a calico dress made from material her mother got for her at an auction for damaged goods and walks through evil and good report, serene as a sybil. Her two sisters, Melissa and Miranda, are proud and beautiful. When Mrs. Nute becomes ill with a serious illness Cinderella must drop out of school to care for her, a nurse to one neither grateful nor easily pleased. Years pass as Cinderella sits in the chimney corner of her mother’s sick room, grotesque as ever in her dress, yet still serene. She becomes seamstress for the whole family, as well as housekeeper. But the young student who comes with old Dr. Gray to care for Mrs. Nute takes a liking to Cinderella. He flirts with Miranda, talks metaphysics with Melissa, but would marry Cinderella. He dresses her well, and to the amazement of all, she is beautiful. But the marriage takes place only later, after Edward Gray returns with his fortune from India, when he meets Cinderella again, now the governess of old Abraham Marvel’s grandchildren. Their home becomes “a centre of all refining, genial influences.”]

Hopkins, Elizabeth. “Ash, or the Gowns from a Tree.” In More Asexual Fairy Tales. Silverwood Books, 2022. Kindle edition.

[Hopkins focuses on gender swaps and how they may affect the Cinderella storyline. The protagonist, Ash, feels like he is in the wrong body when in traditionally male-gendered items. His name comes from the ash tree that covers his mother’s grave, rather than from abuse. As his stepmother and stepsisters prepare for the ball, Ash yearns to wear similar gowns and dance. The king is hosting a three-day ball because the prince refuses to wed any royal woman, and the monarch invites only women to the ball. The prince is gay, but he does not know how to tell his father. Ash asks his mother’s tree for the ball gown and to feel beautiful for one night. The tree grants his wish, and Ash, feeling beautiful, heads to the ball. The prince spots Ash immediately and is drawn to him. They dance and are attracted to each other. Ash fears rejection because he sees himself as ugly and runs from the ball. After the event, the stepsisters speak of the beautiful maiden, and Ash attends each night. The prince begins to suspect that Ash is not a woman, and Ash wants to see if the prince can accept him. The prince asks to see Ash’s true face, and Ash appears before the prince dressed as a soldier but still in the make up of the ball. The pair exchange endearments, and Ash admits to not yet knowing which gender he prefers. The story ends as the couple discusses Ash’s magic shoes.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Howard, Barbara. Her Heart’s Challenge, or, A Beautiful Cinderella. New York: Street and Smith, 1899.

Huth, Angela. “Another Kind of Cinderella.” In Another Kind of Cinderella and Other Stories. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1996. Pp. 1-25.

[Reginald plays second chair fiddle in the orchestra for the Cinderella pantomime. He lives with his demanding mother, Mrs. Breen, who makes him account for every minute according to her liking. He fantasizes about dating Valerie, the sweet-voiced beauty who plays Cinderella. She seems close to Bev, who plays Prince Charming, but finally he gets up courage to ask her to have coffee with him on an afternoon when his mother thinks he has rehearsal. She agrees to see him, but on another day. He joins her, even though he knows he will have to endure his mother’s wrath. Valerie wonders what Reg expects, he being so much older and essentially a loser. He asks to be given the chance to spend his savings on her; she smiles and insists that she must meet with Bev: “You’re a nice guy, but I’m another kind of Cinderella.” When he gets home his mother, plumped with indignation, her obscene legs swing, scolds him and mocks, “What kept you then? Dancing with Cinderella.” As she laughs sneeringly at him he “swung his violin case above his head, and moved towards her in silence before they both screamed.”]

Irish, Marie. A Twentieth-Century Cinderella. New York: Edgar S. Werner and Company, 1905.

Japrisot, Sebastian. Trap for Cinderella. New York: Simon Schuster, 1964; New York: Pocket Books Inc., 1965. First Published as Piège pour cendrillen. Paris: Editions Densël, 1962. Winner of Le Grand Prix de la Litterature Policiere.

[Backcover: Was she the murderer or the murdered? At a French resort, two young girls share a house on the beach. When fire guts the house only one of them survives. Either of them might have said this: “I am twenty years old. I am about to tell a story. It is a story of murder. I am the murderer. I am the victim. I am the witness. I am the inquisitor. I am all of these. But who am I?” Flyleaf: He clapped his hand over my mouth and pushed me inside the garage. “I heard about the fire … that one of you had been killed,” he said. “I’ve been watching you since, and I know who you really are. And now I want my cut.” I was out of breath. I wanted to scream, but I lacked the strength. “Don’t be a fool,” he said. “You know very well you killed her!” I nodded my head. “Let me go please.” “I can bother you or leave you alone,” he said. “The price for not bothering you is two million francs.” Synopsis: Micky is heir to a large estate. Her godmother becomes unhappy with her for her careless ways with money and boys. Domenica Loi, a working girl, befriends Micky and wheedles her way into the godmother’s favor and, through deceitful letters, into the old woman’s will, even at the cost of her friendship. Domenica and her boyfriend, Serge Reppo, plan the murder of Micky, though she does not know this until later. A fire at a French Resort kills one of the girls and badly burns the other, who loses her memory and is unable even to know which of the two girls she might be. Serge knows she is Micky and tries to frame her, accusing her of starting the fire twice in her effort to kill Domenica. Jeanne Murneau, Micky’s nurse, tries to help her back to full consciousness of who she is, hoping to win a portion of the deceased Godmother’s estate for herself. Micky kills Serge as he tries to blackmail her, insisting that she murdered Domenica. Micky and Jeanne are brought to trial. Jeanne is sentenced to 30 years in prison for her fraudulent schemes to get the estate. On grounds of lack of sanity, Micky is acquitted of the murder of Serge, but sentenced to 10 years prison as Jeanne’s accomplice. Only in prison does she regain enough of her memory to know that she is Micky. As the gendarme escorts her to prison she becomes calm. The man’s cologne reminds her of a scent of an Algerian military man who courted her in his youth. The nauseating cologne that haunted Micky was called “Trap for Cinderella.”]

Jenkins, E. Lawrence. Cinderella, or The Slip, The Slipper, and the Slip Up. New York: Hints Publishing Company, 1902.

Jensen, Kathryn. Mail-Order Cinderella. New York: Silhouette Books, New York, 2000.

[Backcover: Wife in the Mail. If diehard bachelor Tyler Fortune was being forced by his parents to marry, he’d darned well do it on his own terms — even if it meant securing a bride through a dating service! Mousy Julie Parker seemed the perfect candidate. In return for becoming his wife, all the shy librarian wanted was a baby. And Tyler thought marriage wouldn’t change his life much at all. Until his sweet bride had a glamorous makeover and they got down to making a baby the old-fashioned way. Flyleaf: “Meet the Arizona Fortunes — a family with a legacy of wealth, influence and power. As they gather for a host of weddings, a shocking plot against the family is revealed … and passionate new romances are ignited. Tyler Fortune:This sexy man-about-town knew how to drive a rivet with the best of his construction crew and kiss a women senseless, but he didn’t think he knew anything about marriage. Until plain-Jane Julie became his bride. Julie Parker: All this shy librarian had wanted was a quiet, undemanding man who’d give her a baby. Instead, she got a stunningly sexy, self-possessed man whose kisses gave her an unexpected glimpse of heaven. Jason Fortune: Maybe if his younger brother, Tyler, had stuck with one girlfriend more than three months, he’d know that finding a bride wasn’t like ordering a pizza.” This book is the second of five devoted to the Fortune family of Arizona. The other four are: Bride of Fortune, Fortune’s Secret Child, Husband or Enemy?, and Groom of Fortune. The book ends with a family tree.]

Jenoff, Marvyne. “Cinderella and All the Slippers: The Story of the Story,” The Fiddlehead: Atlantic Canada’s International Literary Journal 172, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada: Summer, 1992. Pp. 65-74.

[The story wakes up to find itself in a kingdom that has lost its sense of romance. Even the mothers are uncomfortable with it. Fathers are too worried about what to buy their own daughters. Cinderella goes to a festival but creeps away, unwanted. Even the stepsisters are turned away and become more cruel. The prince approaches but sleeps in a place apart, never reaching her house. Yet they dream the same dream, as if it happened long ago.]

Johnson, Jenna Elizabeth. “Soot and Stone.” In Once Upon a Kiss: 17 Romance Faerie Tales. Fiddlehead Press, 2017. Pp. 275-306.

[Johnson highlights the flexibility of the Cinderella story. She retells the tale but creates small changes, such as the heroine, Aisling, also called Smudge, having a corrupted uncle with two sons rather than a wicked stepmother. The uncle steels her magical and artistic talents and claims her works as his own, but Aisling will end up meeting Kiernan, the god of the Wild’s son, who enjoys creating art with her. The ball is replaced by a contest for an art scholarship, and fellow servants take the place of the fairy godmother. The story would work in classrooms to show how different the story can become while leaving the key tropes intact.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Jones, Linda Winstead. Cinderfella. New York: Dorcester Publishing Co., Inc., 1998. A Faerie Tale Romance. Linda Winstead Jones was winner of the Colorado Romance writers 1997 Award for Excellence.

[Backcover: An American Princess: The daughter of a Kansas cattle tycoon, Charmaine Haley was given a royal welcome on her return from Boston: a masquerade. But the spirited beauty was aware of her father’s matchmaking schemes, and she felt sure there would be no shoe-ins for her affection. On the Ball: At the dance, Charmaine was swept off her feet by a masked stranger. She hadn’t been so spellbound since Ash Coleman had stolen her heart years before, but suddenly she found herself in a compromising position that had her father on a manhunt with a shotgun and the only clue the stranger had left—one black boot. A Slippery Situation: Ash Coleman hadn’t planned to attend the ball, but he found himself smitten by the grown-up Charmaine. Now, after a stroke of midnight he’d never forget, he suddenly knew this time when the shoe fit, he was ready to wear it. Flyleaf: A Compromising Position: If Charmaine hadn’t been wearing a darn corset, she would have been able to right herself in time, but as it was she fell stiffly forward and into the stranger’s ill-prepared arms. The boot he’d been holding in one hand went flying, and as he caught her around the waist they went tumbling over the side of the gazebo. Strong arms tightened around her, and when they fell, his body cushioned the blow for her. He landed flat on his back, and she landed atop him with a knee on either side of his waist and her skirts bunched around her thighs. Her heart was pounding, her hair was falling in disarray about her face, and her expensive gown was falling off of one shoulder. His hand found her face; long fingers touched her cheek briefly and then moved to the back of her head, and after a pause where taking a breath was impossible, the stranger pulled her face to his and kissed her again. She had never been so close to any man before, never had her body pressed to his and her mouth joined in this impossible way. The rush of her longing that coursed through her body was unexpected and unwanted and much too powerful for her to ignore. “I’ll kill you.” It took Charmaine a moment to realize that the husky voice had not come from the man beneath her.]

Jukes, Mavis. Cinderella 2000. New York: Delacorte Press, 1999. Pp. 197.

Ashley Ella Toral is an orphan, being raised by her stepmother Phyllis, who is doing her best to raise her own spoiled and lazy twins, Paige and Jessica. Ashley’s father had been an air force pilot, much admired and remembered by the people of their California beach town. Ashley and Phyllis get on together well enough – they converse – and Ashley looks after the house and the twins while Phyllis holds down a job. Phyllis is aware of how lazy and ill-bred the twins are and puts up with their messy habits. She admires Ashley’s beauty – her queenly neck, aristocratic cheekbones, large, dark eyes, perfectly arched eye browes, and "‘Draw Me’-style nose, the world’s most perfect nose" (pp. 20-21). She favors her twins with gifts and clothes, and sets up savings to send them to college, telling Ashley that she has no need for college, since she will never have trouble finding the man of her dreams who will be eager to support her. Ashley quietly disagrees with that assessment, planning to go to college and earn her way through her own personal efforts. The plot focuses on a New Year’s eve party at the Ocean Crest Country Club to usher in the year 2000. Ashley has an invitation by Trevor Cranston to go to a ritzy party that is being put on by his mother for her son’s football friends and their dates, an exclusive bunch. She would also like to go to the beach party with her closest friends Emily, Ana, and Mara, who were not invited to the Country Club. Her grandmother is going to visit (something she seldom does), and Phyllis hopes to take her to dinner, while Ashley looks after the twins. Ashley gets promises that she may be able to go to the party, providing she can come up with $35.00 as her part of the limo fee and Phyllis can find a baby sitter. When Ashley shops for a dress, the waitress, recognizing her petite size and beauty asks her to model a splendid gown and shoes (a perfect fit) to help her determine how to display the dress on a mannequin in the window. The outfit costs $2000! The twins play pranks on Ashley, listening in on her phone conversations, stealing her money, etc. Phyllis manages to get an invitation to the ball for the twins which so upsets Ashley that she refuses to go. Meanwhile the grannie, who understands the home situation, makes secret plans for Ashley. It turns out that she has recently won the lottery and buys the expensive dress, which Ashley already knows is a perfect fit, plus a cell phone and pager as well. Phyllis takes the twins to the party early. They play foolish games, breaking the punch bowl and messing up the cuisine. Mrs. Cranston calls Phyllis and tells her to bring the girls home. But Ashley enjoys her dream outing with Trevor, wows everyone the party with her beauty, then they join Emily and the other uninvited friends on the beach to stay up until dawn to see the sun rise on the year 2000.

Kauffman, Donna. The Cinderella Rules. New York: Bantam Dell, 2004.

[Backcover: “A Cinderella Checklist: DO: dress the part. If you’re going to have the world at your feet, you need a great pair of stilettos. DON’T: play by all the rules. After all, you’re a Cinderella, not a saint. DO: employ some discretion. Flings are fabulous. Just don’t get caught. DON’T: dismiss Mr. Nice Guy – there may be a bad boy lurking underneath. DO: keep an eye out for your prince. He might ride in on a white steed – but a red convertible will do nicely too. DON’T: settle. Cinderella should never have to choose between true love and great sex. There’s a little bit of Cinderella in every woman … except Darby Landon, or so she thinks before meeting the three fairy godmothers of Glass Slipper, Inc. They guarantee they can bring out the princess in any woman. But they’ll have their work cut out for them with Darby, who’s more comfortable in jeans and cowboy boots than designer gowns. But when she’s called from her Montana ranch to squire her impossible-to-please father’s star client around the D.C. social scene, Darby has to turn into the queen of chic … and fast. Between torture-chamber sessions of tweezing and teasing, and horrifying lessons on place settings, Darby finds herself drawn into a fairy tale romance of the very adult variety with Shane Morgan, the devastatingly sexy (and reluctant) heir to one of the city’s largest companies. But when another Prince Charming arrives on the scene, Darby’s caught between the woman she is and the woman she’s supposed to be, between two very different irristible bad boys. Now Darby has to choose her own happy ending … and with the help of three very unusual fairy godmothers, this modern-day Cinderella is determined to stay dancing way past midnight – no pumpkins required.” The story is laid out in 25 chapters, each beginning with a Cinderella Rule by one of the cofounders of Glass Slipper, Inc. E.g., “Cinderella Rule #1. While life occasionally makes it appear otherwise, no one has control over your life … but you. Make decisions with care because in the end, you have only yourself to blame for the outcome. – Mercedes Browning, Cofounder Glass Slipper, Inc.” “Cinderella Rule #2. Life offers very few do-overs. A good first impression is critical. Don’t waste yours unnecessarily. 12-Hour Mascara can be just as valuable as a master’s degree. An 18-Hour Bra might serve you even better. – Vivian DePalma, Cofounder Glass Slipper, Inc.” “Cinderella Rule #3. Failing that last rule, regroup quickly and put your best foot forward. Take care to keep your mouth closed while doing so. Better to bite your tongue … than risk swallowing your foot. And darlings, a bright smile covers a multitude of believed sins. – Aurora Favreaux, Cofounder Glass Slipper, Inc.” And so it goes with alternating rules by Mercedes, Vivian, and Aurora, until “Cinderella Rule #25: Life is not a fairy tale. We’re not all Cinderellas. And sometimes Prince Charming wears Hawaiian flowered shorts while riding his trusty steed. But there can be happy endings. You just need work at finding yours … and then hang on to it. Even if it means you wear the pants in the family. Some of the time. (Those Hawaiian shorts are pretty comfortable.) – Darby Landon Morgan, Glass Slipper Graduate.”]

Kay, Kathryn. Possible Squeez Play. Hollywood: Circle Publishing Company, 1941.

Keller, Raymond F. Cinderella with the Wooden Slippers. New York: Exposition Press, 1952.

Kent, Rockwell (1882-1971). Cinderella in Greenland. Chicago: Esquire Publishing Company, 1934.

Kesey, Ken, with Ken Babbs. The Last Go Round: A Dime Western. New York: Viking Press, 1994.

[Broncobuster Jonathan E. Lee Spain, a white man from Tennessee, beats out his two best friends, “N***** George” Fletcher (a popular black cowboy) and Jackson Sundown (a Nez Perce Indian cowboy) for the top prize in the first Pendleton (Oregon) Round Up of 1911. Though his buddies’ rides are as good as his, or maybe even better, the judges can’t bring themselves to award first place to a black man or Native American. Spain sees his rise to the top as a Cinderella story: he happens to be the right person in the right place at the right time. “My turn is mostly a blur, the biggest ride of my seventeen-year-old Cinderella life and all I can make out is the stuff in the background” (Ch. 20, “My Turn”). In this first person narrative, Spain’s sense of his life as a “Cinderella story” propels him onward.]

King, Jessie M. How Cinderella Was Able To Go To the Ball. London: Foulis, n.d.

[A brochure on Batik. Cinderella wishes to go to the ball but has no clothes. The fairy godmother helps to make batik cloth, with samples and accounts of how the process works. The samples are tipped in color plates. One fine illustration of Cinderella in the final product.]

Kingfisher, T. “The Dryad’s Shoe.” Fantasy Magazine: Issue 58 (2014): https://www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/fiction/the-dryads-shoe/.

[This retelling is part of the special issue “Women Destroy Fantasy” (The designation is facetious.) Kingfisher tells of Hannah, who prefers gardens to ball gowns. When a dryad with the help of a titmouse fairy godmother try to arrange for her to attend the ball, Hannah trades her ball gowns for gardening knowledge and cuttings. The servant, Kara, who she trades with marries the duke’s son, and Hannah and the younger stepsister plan to open a business where the sister creates gowns and Hannah sells honey.

The retelling is suitable for all ages, and it offers a refreshing take on the story because the heroine refuses to marry the duke’s son. The author also includes a nice use of the slipper trope when the shoe is too stretched out and the prince happily relies on knowing the maiden’s name and what they spoke about during the events instead. The stepfamily does not abuse this Cinderella; they merely do not know how to handle her best since she does not want fine gowns, boys, or balls.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

---. "Godmother." In Jackalope Wives and Other Stories. Argyll Productions, 2017. Pp. 13-14.

In this short tale, a heroine covered in her prince’s blood travels alongside a dog made of bones until she can confront the godmother who did not assist her. The godmother lies, claiming that her magic is limited and that she does not rescue the ones who can save themselves. After the girl leaves, she admits the truth to herself. The magic is limited, so she only spends it on the ones with the highest chances of survival, often the rich, pampered princesses. [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Kingsley, Katherine. Once Upon a Dream. New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1997.

[A once upon a wish, once upon a passion, once upon a dream book, a retelling of the Cinderella tale, “as two star-crossed lovers play out a romance that is the stuff of legend.” As the cover explains: “Lucy Kincaid endures a life of loneliness and drudgery in her stepmother’s house on Ireland’s windswept coast. All she has to sustain her are her dreams, until the day the golden stranger appears on a cliff — a stranger who gazes at her with love in his eyes and poetry on his lips. Lucy’s heart is lost — until she realizes that he is the enemy: a dispised Englishman, the man whose family stole her birthright. Raphael Montagu, eighth duke of Southwell, searches futilely for the mysterious Irish beauty he’d loved at first sight, certain that only she can heal his wounded heart. But when fate finally returns her to him at a London ball, she denies ever having seen him before. And even when he claims her with a kiss and a vow of eternal love, she vanishes once again, leaving him with no clue as to her identity. His only hope is to travel back to Ireland to uncover the mystery that drove her from his side - and finally claim her for his own.]

Kipling, Rudyard (1865-1936). Captains Courageous. London: Macmillan, 1897.

[A male Cinderella counterpart to Burnett’s A Little Princess.]

-----. How the Elephant Got Its Trunk, and, Cinderella. Tulsa: Educational Development Corporation, 1985.

Kistler, Julie. Cinderella at the Firecracker Ball. Toronto: Harlequin Books, November, 1993.

[According to the backcover and the blurb: “She was living the fairy tale before the happy ending. C. J. Bede had never read Cinderella, but she would have recognized herself as the star. She even had two wicked stepsisters, Karla and Darla Farley. But in this story, when the prince came to town to find a wife, no one was going to keep C. J. away. With the help of her fairy godmother, C. J. swept into the Firecracker Ball and set the eyes of ‘Prince’ Rowan McKenna afire. While her stepsisters were fuming, she snared the heart of the town’s most eligible bachelor. But then the clock struck midnight … ” “She was a vision. The woman was so beautiful she seemed to shimmer. Could it be his imagination, or the dim, romantic cast of the moonlight? It was as if she’d been dusted with tiny sparkles. Rowan couldn’t take his eyes off this fairy princess who’d just swept into the Firecracker Ball, completely without warning. She gazed at him from behind a cat-eyed mask, with eyes that were violet-blue. ‘Who are you?’ he asked, cursing the rough catch in his voice. Wordlessly, she smiled. She held up half a bottle rocket. His pulse speeded as he found his own rocket. He thanked God for the silly game the hosts had devised of pairing up couples with bottle rockets that fit together. He knew it would be a perfect union. He noticed that her hand trembled as much as his as they slid the pieces together. It was a perfect fit. ‘I think this means you’re mine,’ he murmured, and he pulled her into his arms.”]

Krailing, Tessa. Cinderella in Blue Jeans. London: Lightning, 1989.

Lackey, Mercedes. The Fairy Godmother. New York: Luna, 2004.

[This novel is the first of the Tales of the 500 Kingdoms series. The series recounts a variety of fairy tales, including Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, and multiple Beauty and the Beasts, while incorporating ideas of narrative tropes via a concept called “the Tradition.” In the first novel, Elena Klovis becomes a fairy godmother after she learns how the Tradition affects sources of magic and people in the 500 Kingdoms. Elena should have left the home of her abusive stepmother and stepsisters, but when it came time for her ball, the Prince was only a child. When a fairy godmother rescues her, trains her, and suddenly retires, Elena finds herself overseeing the needs of several nearby kings, princes, and peasants encountering magic. She learns that she wants to encourage certain tales, such as Princess and the Pea narratives, while avoiding others, such as Rapunzel, for many princes die at the witch’s hand before one marries the maiden in the tower. Along the way, Elena struggles with her desires, the solitary life of a fairy godmother who helps make others happy, and an angry prince she transforms into a donkey for his poor attitude while trying to rescue the princess of the Glass Mountain. Elena manages to repel the side effects of challenging the Tradition and marry a prince of her choice, leading to an alliance between fairy godmothers and champions.
Books in the series include One Good Knight, Fortune’s Fool, The Snow Queen, and Beauty and the Werewolf.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Lanahan, Eleanor. “Cinderella’s Daughter” (1952). In Scottie, The Daughter of … The Life of Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan Smith. New York: Harper-Collins, 1955. Pp. 554-570.

[Charlotte Stark, daughter of Charlotte Hennessy, the famous writer, lives unnoticed in Washington, working for the CIA, until her boss Gusty, invites her to a New Year’s Eve party, where she suddenly finds herself being lionized as her mother’s daughter. Yearning to be recognized on her own she flees before midnight, returning to her bleak and lonely apartment, where she goes to bed to read her mother’s writings, thinking that next time she will have to be more intelligent when the subject of her mother comes up.]

Langan, Ruth. Snowbound Cinderella. New York: Silhouette Books, 1999.

[Backcover: Membership in this family has its priveleges and its price. But what a fortune can’t buy, a true-bred Texas love is sure to bring! Famous and fabulously wealthy Ciara Wilde had led a charmed life, until the day she decided to run away from her own wedding. Desperate to escape the pursuing press, the glamourous single woman sought refuge in a secluded cabin. But her snow-covered safe haven was soon invaded by a dangerously attractive Jace Lockhart, a man tending to his own emotional wounds. Forced together by a raging blizzard, their passions overheated their long-denied desires. And though Jace had the power to make Ciara feel like Cinderella, she knew her mysterious lover could never promise a fairy-tale ending, unless beauty could find a way to tame the beast. Flyleaf: Meet the Fortunes of Texas: Jace Lockhart: This veteran reporter was under doctor’s orders to relax, but the sexy stranger trapped in the isolated cabin with him was sending his blood pressure sky-high. And soon, warm embraces became more that a means for survival. Clara Wilde: The gorgeous movie star wasn’t used to men loving her for herself. She wanted a man who saw beneath her silver-screen persona, and she was determined to find out if yer romance with Jace was more than a snowbound affair. One of several romances on the Fortunes of Texas and Arizona. See Kathryn Jensen, Mail-Order Cinderella, above.]

Langley, Ceinwen. Almost Midnight: Three Classic Fairy Tales. Illustrations by Ben Sigas. N.p.: Feed the Writer Press, 2016. Kindle edition.  

[This collection of tales includes substantial revisions of three popular fairy tales: “Cindersoot” explores a reason why Cinderella might hide her parentage from her stepmother; “Hans My Hedgehog” explores the price of promises, and “The Mermaid” offers a way to see Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid at her most elemental.] [Annotation by Martha M. Johnson-Olin] 

Langley, Ceinwen. “Cindersoot.” In Almost Midnight: Three Classic Fairy Tales. Illustrations by Ben Sigas. N.p.: Feed the Writer Press, 2016. Kindle edition. 

[Ella lives with her parents, and the family is quite poor. While her father always has plans to change their status, her mother always suggests that they have enough and should be content. At this point, Ella is used to sleeping by fires and waking with ashes in her hair. She longs for the fancy dresses of other girls but realizes that her family does not have to beg. The family’s finances change when Ella is twelve. Her father’s great uncle claims he will leave the family his wealth. All they have to do is join him at the estate. The family uses the last of their money to make the trip only to discover the house is a mess. The relative hated the father’s grandfather but mistakenly thinks he is Ella’s father. The great uncle dies leaving behind an estate house in need of major repair, no servants, and an accumulation of debts. The family pulls together, and Ella’s mother creates a home for them out of what little remains in the kitchen. They begin to grow vegetables and use a scarecrow to protect their crops. The father takes a wheelbarrow of produce into the city to support his family, and his skills soon help his business to grow. Soon he has a cart, then a donkey, then a boy to help him. The father begins to spend more time at the city and less with his family, and his wife hides her growing illness. As the mother fades, Ella takes the scarecrow as a surrogate guide as she walks to the city to find her father. She finds him, and they return home with a doctor who confirms that there is nothing he can do for her dying mother. Her father goes to the city in despair, and Ella prepares and buries her mother. She continues to harvest vegetables and cries at the grave daily. Later, her father sends his apprentice Luc to tell Ella that she is to care for herself and that he will come for the crops once a week. Two years pass, and Ella’s father has not come home and has run through his money. The apprentice finally reveals the father’s drunkenness to Ella before leaving himself. Ella ends up in an empty house, alone. Her father finally returns, but the changed man will not speak with his daughter, who bears a strong resemblance to his wife. Six weeks later, her father returns again with a new wife and her daughters. Ella, who looks dirty from her terrible living conditions, does not admit she is the daughter of the estate and is mistaken for a servant. Her father leaves without revealing the truth, and Ella is too embarrassed to reveal her status, fearing she would be accused of deceit. Veronique and her daughters, Adrienne and Charlotte, do not abuse the girl. They treat her well but according to her station. The girls are occasionally insensitive, given their age, nicknaming her Cinders and Cindersoot, but, the three girls become friends. As more time passes, Ella becomes a competent cook and maid who receives a wage. Ella is amazed as Veronique transforms the house with new furnishings, hosts gatherings for which Ella must do little extra work, and creates a new atmosphere of family. Ella’s father returns occasionally to obtain money and departs without interacting with her. Ella accepts her fate, although she occasionally talks with Uncle, the scarecrow, about her wishes. Veronique begins to publicly plan for her family’s advancement when the prince’s coming of age and bride-finding masquerade is announced. The stepmother is not picky; she wants the girls exposed to as many eligible suitors as possible. She orders new dresses and shoes for herself and her daughters. Ella is kind to the shoemaker who appears to have a magical bag, and through his kindness, she obtains beautiful glass slippers. As the new family bonds, Ella learns that Veronique grew up poor and once worked as a maid forced to sleep in an attic. She married a business man to change her status, but he died. As the festival begins, Ella’s father returns in his normal drunken and tattered state. As the family departs for the festival, Ella’s father fails to recognize her and calls her Cindersoot. The girl goes to the grave of her mother weeping at her father’s callousness. Birds begin to speak with her and promise her a fun evening by sending her to the event, and the maiden’s transformation begins. Uncle becomes the coachman. The birds warn her that their magic will only last until midnight. Ella goes to the ball wanting to dance and is annoyed to discover that everyone is just talking while women stand in line to dance with the prince. A footman is struck by her lack of desire to dance with the prince, and they become friends as they dance. The man claims to be the prince’s valet, but he is the prince. Ella is a terrible dancer, but the prince finds her clumsiness endearing. On the first night of the festivities, Ella returns home on time. Over the next several nights, Ella and the prince grow closer. He confesses his love to Ella. At home, Veronique celebrates the “prince’s” obvious attraction to Charlotte. As they prepare Ella for the final night of the masquerade, the birds warn her to have courage. As midnight nears, Ella realizes that something is wrong. The prince is looking at Ella. When he reveals the truth about his love for a commoner and his parents’ consent to the match, Ella freezes. Then she runs from the ballroom, losing her shoe. She loves the prince but cannot picture being his bride. The next day, Veronique fumes at the prince’s deception, and Ella and Charlotte mourn. Soon the royal coach arrives with the prince’s summons seeking the girl who fits the slipper. Veronique turns the servant away, and he brushes off Ella’s query, assuming she is common, and Ella does nothing to correct him. Veronique fears for Ella, noticing her despondency. The birds come to Ella and explain that she is miserable because she made the wrong choice: she was not brave. They tell her that she is giving into fear, and Ella suddenly understands her father’s failings, even as she shuts the birds out. The next day, the prince arrives and apologizes to Veronique for the trick at the festival. The prince has granted Jacques, his valet, a title when he takes the throne so the man is eligible to marry an enthusiastic Charlotte. Veronique assents to the union. She asks about the prince’s search, and he is giving up after seeing the scores of false maidens lining up at the palace. He must marry before the year ends and will accept his parents’ choice. Ella runs and retrieves the slipper that she had covered in ashes and goes running after the prince who turns at the sound of her voice. The couple embraces, and Ella reveals her full name. Veronique is shocked while her daughters squeal in delight. Veronique is horrified at how she has treated the girl, but Ella loves her and asks to call her stepmother and provide for her daughters so that each may marry for love, soon in Charlotte’s case. Ella is presented to the king and queen with uncle and the birds along with her new family. While the court laughs, the prince proposes, and the king accepts his bride. Ella and Henri marry. After a year, Ella finds her father. He had been in hiding since the masquerade. She finds him begging on the streets; he is now blind. She speaks with him; he confesses his sins. Ella offers family rather than forgiveness. She has her father taken home to Veronique and cleaned up. The family reconciles, and years pass in happiness. The story ends with Ella holding grandchildren as she addresses her mother’s grave, recounting her joy.]  

Lardner, Ring W. “Cinderella.” In What of It?. New York and London: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926. Pp. 58-64.

[A prominent clubman kills his wife for misbidding at bridge, losing the rubber, and costing them $26.00. His daughter runs hog wild so he marries again, a widow with two gals of her own, who were terrible. They make Zelda sleep in an ashcan. A prince who’s fast as the Red Sox infield throws a party for people with dress suits. Cinderella can’t go until her fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a black touring car like murderers ride in, six mice into six cylinders, and lounge lizards into footmen. She even fixes Cinderella up with plate-glass slippers. The prince dances with her alone and makes her laugh herself sick. The second night the Prince gets her drowsy on gin, she loses a shoe and has to walk home with her former chauffeur nibbling at her exposed foot. The Prince, whose name is Scott, runs a display ad for the owner and traces it to Zelda. They get married and forgive the nasty sisters.]

Lavin, Mary. A Single Lady. In Selected Stories. Penguin, 1981. Pp. 107-121.

[In this interesting story, first published in 1951, the daughter finds herself in the step position as she, in caring for her widowed father, introduces a low-class Cinderella into the kitchen to cook and look after things, only to find herself displaced in her father’s affections by the chamber maid. A rather terrifying story, given the virtuous daughter’s inability to cope with the circumstances of her life, where the identity she would emulate is fairy tale, with all the power in the hands of the male protector and his desire for creature comforts.]

Lawrence, Mildred. No Slipper for Cinderella. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1925.

Lazier, Audrey. Cinderella Summer. New York: Avalon, 1988.

Lee, Madeline. “Charlie's Girl.” In Fairly Twisted Tales for a Horribly Ever After. Edited by Veronica Park, Ashley Ruggirello, and Kisa Whipkey. N.p.: REUTS Publications, 2014. Kindle edition.  

[Ella Pinckney falls in love with Charlie Gunn in a world where a plague and vampires have struck. Ella decides she wants Charlie, the lead hunter, and will do anything to obtain his love, yet he does not notice her in a town with many maidens. When Charlie focuses on Penelope, the heroine grows desperate. The young women are encouraged to spend the night in a shared room, and Ella sees a single lone woman come to town. Ella realizes that this woman is a vampire and decides not to tell the others. The community thought the vampire they feared was male. Ella places blood under the beds of the other women hoping to identify the vampire and gain Charlie’s attention. Penelope, the vampire, attacks one girl and then others in the room. The men break in upon hearing the screams. Ella is the only survivor. Ella marries Charlie, but she realizes that he chose her since no other young women remained.] [Annotation by Martha M. Johnson-Olin]  

Lee, Tanith. Red as Blood (or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer). Interior Woodblock illustrations by Tanith Lee. Cover illustration by Victoria Poyser. DAW Books (Donald A. Wollheim), Inc., 1983.

[Includes “Paid Piper (Asia: The Last Century B.C.),” pp. 1-17; “Red as Blood (Europe: The Fourteenth Century),” pp. 18-27; “Thorns (Eurasia: The Fifteenth Century),” pp. 28-38; “When the Clock Strikes (Europe: The Sixteenth Century),” pp. 39-53; “The Golden Rope (Europe: The Seventeenth Century),” pp. 54-81; “The Princess and her Future (Asia: The Eighteenth Century),” pp. 82-90; “Wolfland (Scandinavia: The Nineteenth Century),” pp. 91-118; “Black as Ink (Scandinavia: The Twentieth Century),” pp. 119-148; “Beauty (Earth: The Future),” pp. 149-186.]

- - -. “Empire of Glass.” Redder Than Blood. Daw Books, 2017. Kindle Edition.

[In this retelling, Lee shares the prince’s perspective. He must wed to protect his kingdom and needs a well-connected and wealthy wife. He hosts a ball, and at eleven, an uninvited, magical woman appears in a coach made of magic and/or technology more advanced than his kingdom possesses. This Cinderella openly shows off her slippers and brags about the magic of her godmother. She dances a tarantella before the prince to demonstrate the materials her shoes are made from. She tells the monarch to find her as she leaves at midnight, admitting that her name is Cindy, departing in a rush of magic. The prince persuades his council to accept the marriage by hurling the slipper Cindy intentionally leaves behind at a pillar. He wants this kind of magic to protect his kingdom, and he summons his bloodhound to locate the maiden.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

- - -. “Midnight.” Redder Than Blood. Daw Books, 2017. Kindle Edition.

[The story begins with Elvira (Cinderella) at the ball, wanting to leave to avoid discovery and also wanting to stay with the prince. She reflects that she attends only due to fairy magic. The protagonist hesitates too long, and the magic evaporates. The girl wishes to run but stands still as the magic fades. When back in her ash-covered firm, she assumes the prince will reject her. He recognizes her and commends her for being brave enough to stay. He takes her hand and presents her as his future wife.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

-----.“When the Clock Strikes (Europe: The Sixteenth Century),” copyright 1980. First published in Weird Tales. Ed. Lin Carter 1981; rpt. in Red as Blood or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer, DAW Books, Inc., 1983.

[A traveller tells us what happened two hundred years ago at a palace after the Great Plague. A duke acquired land unscrupulously, destroying those who stood in his way. He rid himself of all rivals but a single descendant, a woman whom he could not trace. She married a wealthy merchant and got revenge through Black Magic, making the duke ill and bringing him to the point of death. She is exposed with her daughter and is executed for witchcraft, her ashes cast by the wayside. The daughter, though secretly in league with Satanas, is permitted to live because of her youth and apparent innocence. The merchant remarries, but his daughter continues to mourn her mother and insists on doing servile labor. She dons a sackcloth, pours ashes over her head and calls it her penance. She wanders the streets at night but is ignored. Outside the city she finds the ashes and bones of her mother, brings them home, buries them in the backyard and plants a hazel shoot in them. You know the story. The prince has a ball after the wretched death of his father. The two stepsisters dress prettily and go to the ball. The daughter goes to the garden and, after incantations, is bathed, perfumed, dressed, and goes to the palace. The prince will have only her. She says her name is Ashella. Only her father recognizes her. There is a strange clock in the palace. With each stroke of the midnight chime Ashella curses the prince and his father. At the twelfth stroke, where the figure of Death sits, she disappears leaving only a glass shoe. The prince loses his mind and seeks to find her. The slipper is magic and adjusts itself to fit no one. In his madness he goes to the merchant’s house. The merchant tells all he knows, but Ashella has vanished. The prince runs mad and is slain. As he falls the glass shoe shatters. The narrator hovers around the strange clock in the deserted palace enticing coins from visitors, insisting that he himself is Death.]

-----. “The Reason for not going to the Ball (A Letter to Cinderella from Her Stepmother).” In Datlow and Windling (see above for full reference), Fantasy and Horror, Tenth annual edition (1996). Pp. 45-49. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November, 1996.

[The stepmother tells of her abuse at the hands of an ogre husband, his beating her and her daughters, and her poisoning of him to escape the brutality; of her love of Cinderella in whom she saw herself — young and beautiful — and her attempts to protect her from falling into the same errors that she has suffered in her own life; and now her concern for the Queen, who also is the victim of abuse at the hands of a brutal prince/king. She tells of her love of a serving man, who has a wife and good children, and who is kind. She will send him at night to help Cinderella escape under the cloak of darkness to take her across the border to a cottage that the stepmother has already bought for her. She does this because she loves her — one so like herself.]

Leigh, Roberta. Cinderella in Mink. Toronto: Harlequin Romance, 1974.

[Nicola Rosten was used to flattery and the deference accorded to a very wealthy woman, a woman to whom mink was an ordinary fact of life. But when Barnaby Grayson mistook her for a down-and-out and set her to work in the kitchens, she found herself unable to tell him the truth for fear she would lose him. Back in her Rolls Royce world she avoids the pressures of her grandfather and Marty and Jeffrey, sets Barnaby up with a hostel business and finally helps him to discover that his Nicky Rose and Nicola Rosten are one and the same. But not without a painful separation where each scorns the other. That pain leads to a long walk at night along the Thames where a policeman fears she may be contemplating suicide. Instead she helps a homeless man to find the hostel. There she meets Joanna, whom she thinks is Barnaby’s fiancée, another misjudgment on her part. Barnaby comes down and asks why she has come to the hostel. She says she has come to apologize for walking out on his birthday, but not to interfere with his engagement to Joanna. But when Barnaby explains the misunderstanding (the rumored engagement came from Joanna, not him), they permit themselves to admit how much they love each other. Henceforth, there will be no more misunderstandings or dodging what they have both known for a long time.]

Lennox, Kara. Sassy Cinderella. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 2002.

[Backcover: Prince Un-Charming: Jonathan Hardison didn’t know whether to fire Sherry McCormick or take her to bed. Falling in love was not an option. Sure, she’d come to his ranch to help out with his kids while he recovered from a broken leg. But Sherry was a city girl from the tips of her frosted hair to the spike heels on her boots. She’d never stay. It was enough to make even the most levelheaded Hardison lose his cool. He was rude, uncooperative — and utterly irrestible. Jonathan’s growls only made Sherry more determined to stay put. But when she got a country makeover to prove she could fit in, Jonathan’s reaction shocked them both. How to Marry a Hardison: First you tempt him, then you tame him … all the way to the altar! Flyleaf:“It’s me, all right!” He must have been staring, because Sherry flashed him an embarrassed grin. At least, he thought it was Sherry. He couldn’t get any words past his lips. She looked nice, he supposed, but she didn’t look like Sherry anymore. Gone was the cascade of curls that had reached the middle of her back. Now her hair fell in gentle waves down to her shoulders … and it was brown. But the changes didn’t stop there. What had happened to those glossy red lips? Her clothes could only be described as sedate, and her shoes had no heel whatsoever. Even her voice seemed more subdued. With an inward groan, he realized this metamorphosis was his doing. She’d changed for him … .]

Levine, Gail Carson. Ella Enchanted. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

[A foolish fairy Lucinda would give a birthday gift to baby Ella; the child is crying, which irritates the fairy, so she gives her the gift of obedience, then commands her to stop crying, which she does. Her mother objects to the gift, recognizing what a curse it might be, but can do nothing about it. At first Ella to be seems the perfect child, obeying every parental command instantly. Her mother dies, telling her never to speak of the "gift," a command that only adds to the curse. The father remarries and the stepmother and two daughters soon figure out how to use Ella. To avoid criminal activity that the "family" would demand, Ella flees in hope of finding Lucinda to have the curse removed. She meets Prince Charles, also an orphan being victimized by his uncle Edgar who killed Char's father and covets the crown. Regent Edgar has enslaved giants, ogres, and elves and many people too. Ella challenges the Prince over the cruelties perpetrated upon the kingdom. He is ignorant of them but admires her independent mindedness. Edgar finds out about Ella's "gift" and orders her to murder Prince Char at midnight before the boy's coronation. But Ella breaks the curse as she discovers that the workings of the heart are more powerful than fairy gifts. Char becomes king, they marry, and all ends happily. The novel received the Newberry Honor Award. A four cassette audiotape is available of the unabridged novel, read/performed by Eden Riegel. Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, 1998. 330 minutes.] See the annotation for the film under Movies and Television.

-----. Cinderellis and the Glass Hill. Illustrated by Mark Elliott. New York: Harper-Collins, 2000.

[By the author of Ella Enchanted. This story draws on earlier male Cinderella narratives such as The Black Bull of Norway and Iron Hans, where the youth, working as a gardener or stable boy, wins the princess on the glass mountain with a horse that enables him to climb the mountain to retrieve golden apples, which she gives him. Cinderellis has two older brothers Ralph and Burt who were best of friends, but had little use for the youngest brother. When Ellis is six, he invents a magic powder with powers of levitation. The brothers mock him and rename him Cinderellis when he makes a cup fly up the chimney, knocking soot down on him. When he is older Cinderellis begins farming up on rocky Biddle mountain since his brothers took the good farmland. But using his flying powder he grows the best tomatoes, beets, and carrots. King Humphrey has a daughter named Marigold, whose best friend is a cat named Apricot. Then strange things start happening. At night the fields are ruined by a mysterious invader who leaves behind an occasional horse hair. Cinderellis makes a horse fodder from his wonderful vegetables and captures over a period of time three great horses along with three suits of armor — a copper-colored horse named Chasam, a silver one named named Shazam, and a gold one named Ghazam. The brothers think the land has been beset by goblins and think they are the ones who save the land with their goblin chants. When Marigold is fifteen the king offers her in marriage to anyone who can rescue her from the top of a glass hill. Princess Marigold dresses up like a dairymaid. Cinderellis and the maiden are attracted to each other. She asks what he can do; he explains that he is an inventor and could make cow treats. She’s impressed and falls in love with him. He invents next an on-off powder, one that can enhance or impede. Marigold agrees to her father’s test because she figures out a secret weapon (olive oil) that will make it impossible for any to succeed in climbing the hill. 213 horsemen try and fail. Then Cinderellis, in copper armor, rides up on Chasam. He does not need to force him, he just goes, which pleases Marigold. Unfortunately, Cinderellis’ helmet is stuck on crooked and he can’t see out. She sees the problem and throws one of the golden apples to him, thinking he can’t catch it; but it lodges in his saddle. When she pours the olive oil on the hill even Chasam slips, despite the on/off powder. Next time Cinderellis invents olive pit powder, which sticks to olive oil. All in silver he climbs the hill on Shazam and is nearly to the top when the terrified Marigold, thinking a goblin is going to win her hand, drops an apple that Shazam catches with his teeth. She then pours walnut oil on the hill and Shazam too slips. Now Cinderellis invents an all-purpose on/off powder and tries a third time, after all other horsemen fail. Now he rides golden Ghazam to the top. But his head again sticks inside his helmet and he can’t see. Marigold thinks he is a monster who is demanding either her cat or an apple. She gives it the apple and it leaves. Later the king and Marigold ride by Cinderellis’ field. He is amazed to see the royal dairy maid whom he loves with the king. He fetches the apples. She is equally amazed; but all becomes clear when she finds out that the helmet he was wearing didn’t fit and he couldn’t raise the visor to reveal himself to her. She would gladly marry him now. Cinderellis continues to invent powders to make grain grow and to help other farmers. And the two live happily together, never to be lonely again.]

Lewis, Linda. Cinderella and the Texas Prince. New York: Silhouette Books, 1998.

[Backcover: The Eligible Prince: Travis Rule, a.k.a. The Richest Bachelor in Texas. The Unlikely Cinderella: Miss Cindy Ellerbee, Travis’s sweet-natured new housekeeper. The Ultimate Proposal: Was the Lone Star State’s most eligible bachelor really thinking of proposing to his very own housekeeper? True, the millionaire had to marry before his birthday, and Cindy was the most adorable gal in sight. But Travis was a man of wealth and connection, and little ol’ Cindy kept his mansion clean. Was this marriage to be one of convenience only, or did Travis have other - loving - motives for taking Cindy as his wife? Flyleaf: How to Catch a Prince (Even if your glass slipper is a size nine). 1) Turn a tedious housekeeping job into an adventure by sneaking naps in the handsome owner’s bed. (Getting caught by handsome owner would be even better!) 2) Turn a disaster like falling bottom-first into a cactus patch to your advantage. Have princely bachelor remove each needle with his own bare hands. 3) Turn bachelor’s head away from thoughts of other women by cooking your way into his heart! (And conveniently ‘helping’ other bride candidates cook their way out of the kitchen.) 4) Turn yourself into the fairy princess of his dreams by just being the wonderful gal that you are! (If he’s a real prince, he won’t be fooled by imitations.)]

Link, Kelly. “Catskin.” In My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me. Ed. Kate Bernheimer. New York: Penguin Books, 2010. Pp. 270-98.

[This revision, loosely based on “Catskin” and other similar narratives, focuses on the legacy of parental revenge rather than incest. It examines the bonds between family members and the “skins” we inhabit. For more on this anthology, see My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

---. "The Cinderella Game." In Troll's Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales. Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Viking, 2009. Kindle Edition. 

[Link blends Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood when an older stepbrother reluctantly entertains his bored younger sister. She wants to be Cinderella, but as they play, his inner wolf begins to surface. Their parents return before the little girl can be consumed.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Lotz, Hildegard Winky. The Roots of Cinderella. Linthicum Heights, MD: Willyshe Publishing Company, 1980.

Lyons, Missy. The Frog Prince. Nashville, TN: Hot Tropica Books, 2008.

[With this book, part of the Prince Charming Series, Lyons combines “Cinderella,” “The Princess and the Pea,” and “The Frog Prince” into an amusing and frequently erotic story discussing love, fidelity, and pleasure. The lecherous Prince Alvin is turned into a frog for attempting to seduce a fairy godmother’s nubile and willing daughters. The king grieves for his lost son and remarries while his son learns to live as an amphibian for three years until he encounters Jasmine, a hard-working wood cutter’s daughter, who loves animals. Jasmine rescues Alvin from a cat’s jaws and later kisses the top of the frog’s head, not realizing that her kiss will release Alvin. While in frog form, Alvin learns to appreciate and love Jasmine, intending to marry her if she releases him; when it occurs, Alvin begins to show Jasmine his affection and gratitude when her father interrupts and demands a hasty wedding for the couple. When Alvin takes his fiancée home to meet his father, his new stepmother attempts to distract him with her daughter and to dispute the suitability of his lover. She will test Jasmine by the sleep test common in Princess and the Pea stories, but Jasmine passes since she does not sleep. Due to the intervention of her fairy godmother, the same woman who cursed Alvin, the restored prince and Jasmine spend the night making love. The next day, the furious stepmother attempts to imprison Jasmine, but Alvin proves his love and loyalty by rescuing and marrying her. At the reception, the fairy godmother turns the stepmother into a mouse and allows her cat to devour it.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

MacCarthy, John Bernard. Who Will Kiss Cinderella?: A Romantic Comedy in Three Acts. London: George Roberts, 1929.

MacDonald, John D. A Bullet for Cinderella. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Gold Medal Book, 1955.

[People who live in glass slippers shouldn’t kick stones. The casting of a junior high Cinderella play provides the key to a murder and hidden wealth, creating another murder as well. Poor Cinderella.]

Macomber, Debbie. Cindy and the Prince. Legendary Lovers: A Silhouette Romance. No. 555. New York: Silhouette Books, 1988.

[Backcover: Unemotional, levelheaded Thorndike Prince was certain his company’s Christmas ball would be an utter bore … until a captivating mystery woman announced that she was Cinderella and he just might be her Prince. In mere hours she’d toppled his implacable cool and sent his usually unshakable heart reeling. But who was she? Janitor Cindy Territo had thought donning an elegant gown and crashing the Oakes-Jennings Christmas party would be a lark. She’d never dreamed the handsome but cynical young vice president would melt her very soul. But how could she tell Thorndike that his Cinderella was the broom-wielding nobody who cleaned his office?]

Maguire, Gregory. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. Illustrations by Bill Sanderson. New York: Regan Books (Harper-Collins), 1999.

[Set in seventeenth century Holland, a destitute English widow (an herbalist named Margarethe), and her two daughters (Ruth, who seems to be retarded, and Iris, who is intelligent but plain), come to Haarlem, where after difficult times Margarethe secures a position as house attendant for a Master painter (Schoonmaker), who has an apprentice named Caspar. The Master paints tulips with plain Iris as a woman set in contrast to the beautiful flowers. A wealthy burgher and tulip speculator, Cornelius Van der Meer, admires the Master’s work and, hoping to advertize the commercial possibilities of tulips, commissions a painting with his beautiful daughter Clara as the central subject, surrounded by tulips. Van der Meer is pleased with the painting, meets Margarethe and her daughters, and invites them to attend him and his wife Henrika. Iris is to teach Clara English. Henrika is pregnant and dies mysteriously. After a time Margarethe marries Van der Meer. Clara, who has been extremely sheltered, goes into a depression. Iris, who has become her good friend, helps her to learn to work. Iris, meanwhile, has herself become an apprentice to the Master. Plague and a fall in the tulip speculations leaves Van der Meer virtually bankrupt. Margarethe urges further speculation, hoping to market Clara to some wealthy burgher. The eccentric queen of France seeks a Dutch bride for her wayward godson. A festival is planned at the greatest estate outside Haarlem. Clara refuses to go. But Iris, with the assistance of Caspar, who manages to put together a grand Spanish attire, convinces Clara that she should attend. The prince is taken with her and seduces her in a private room. Ruth, who sees people threatening Iris and Clara and thinks the painting to be the cause, lights it on fire and burns down the estate. Clara escapes, losing one of her shoes. But the prince seeks her, finds her, weds her, takes her to France, and then to New Amsterdam. Margarethe, who has gone blind, in her delirium, reveals that she may have poisoned Henrika. Iris marries Caspar, and Ruth writes the book.]

-----. “Cinder-Elephant.” In Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Tales. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2004. 147-174.

[In this humorous children’s retelling, Maguire combines an animal story and the classic fairy tale. A Kangaroo Doctor helps a childless queen relax enough to conceive a child. She dies giving birth to Ella, an elephant. In his grief, the King abdicates and becomes a blind bus driver, randomly delivering people around the kingdom. He remarries a woman with two daughters, and all three mock Ella, naming her Cinder-Elephant and forcing her to work in the kitchen. The father cannot protect her because he drives himself off a cliff. When the new King and Queen invite eligible women to a bride-finding ball for their son, the stepmother and sisters plot to go. They taunt Ella by making her bake pies for them each day before postponing the decision of whether she may go to the ball but fail to realize why their gowns never fit. On the night of the ball, Ella is left behind with her pumpkin pie ingredients and finally gives in to her grief. The Kangaroo doctor returns, and although constantly proclaiming “Well, I’m no fairy godmother,” he helps the girl make a gown out of hospital robes, a coach from a pumpkin, and glass slippers from the pie plates (p. 160). When Ella arrives at the ball, the entire royal family approves of her spending the evening with the Prince at her side. She flees at midnight on the advice of the Kangaroo, for her carriage is beginning to rot. She loses a pie plate, and the Prince follows a trail of pumpkin seeds to her door. When the sisters attempt to damage their feet and pose as the heroine, the Kangaroo doctor appears and directs the Prince to Ella. Ella forgives her family before abandoning them; she marries the prince, and they open a bakery. Her father’s bus is found; he survived the accident and begins driving again, this time accidentally running over his wife and stepdaughters’ feet.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Mahy, Margaret. The Changeover. London: Dent, 1984.

[Laura Chant, pained by the divorce of her parents, struggles to come to terms with her pain as well as her own sexual needs. Her anxiety is a “secret illness” which might consume her, except that she helps to keep her younger brother from being devoured by a wicked person. Her initiation into adulthood comes through an emotional confrontation with another Cinderella figure, a boy whose mother abandoned him at birth.]

-----. The Catalogue of the Universe. London: Dent, 1985.

[A Cinderella story that spans two generations: Angela May is the fatherless child of Dido May. The Cinderella disaster which engulfed the mother is that of a single parent, struggling to keep herself and her daughter afloat. Angela repeats the problem as she loves a handsome married man and decides to have his child even though they may never be married. The mother comforts the daughter with a fairy tale about the father who, after finally being located, is not reconciled because Dido has come to prefer her solitude. Angela’s dreams for the “happy ending in marriage” for her mother comes apart as starry-eyed romance is rejected for the more down-to-earth affection for Tycho, who is reliable and an intimate friend, rather than a handsome Prince Charming. “It is a Cinderella story that rewrites the sentimental trappings of soap opera romance and substitutes an insight into character and relationships, achieving a realistic modern view of love” –Gough, p. 106.]

Maitland, Sara. “The Wicked Stepmother’s Tale.” In Tales I Tell My Mother, 1987.

[Maitland shares the stepmother’s perspective of how she grew frustrated at her overly generous stepdaughter. She had already seen the world destroy the girl’s kind mother (and the stepmother’s best friend). She pushed the girl hard to prevent her from being too selfless and too kind, to the point of self-destruction. The girl’s stubborn nature means the stepmother had to resort to more than teaching to make the girl fight back. The girl never hated her stepmother, and in the final paragraph the cruelties are revealed to be the typical struggles and boundaries of parenting.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Mallery, Susan. Prince Charming, M.D.. New York: Silhouette Books, 1998.

[According to the backcover, in this hospital heartbreaker “Trevor MacAllister, M.D. — a.k.a. ‘Dr. Love’ — was a living legend: a brilliant surgeon so sexy he made grown women whimper. His arrival at Honeygrove Memorial Hospital had all the nurses a-twitter, competing to play Cinderella to his roguish Prince Charming — all except Dana Rowan. She prayed for immunity to Trevor’s attractions. Once upon a time in highschool he had been her first love, and she had lived unhappily ever after. Now she absolutely, positively refused to succumb to fairy tales or Trevor’s brand of temptation — twice. But when three wedding-shy nurses come down with a serious case of love, marriage may be just what the doctor ordered: Prescription: Marriage.” Working together and making lots of puns on eggs, Trevor and Dana finally get together: “‘I love you,’ she murmered against him. ‘I have for long time. I love you, Trevor. The man inside as much as the rest of you.’ ‘I love you, too. I don’t know that I ever stopped.’ Somehow he got the door open and maneuvered them both inside. Then they were in the living room, pulling off clothes, frantically kissing and touching and loving, and then he was inside her … where he belonged.” They make jokes about a baby, perhaps to be named Eggbert, but “then he couldn’t think at all. He could only feel her and their love” (p. 240). The baby in question turns out to be a girl.]

-----. Cinderella For a Night. New York: Silhouette Books, 2000.

[Backcover: A masquerade ball is plunged into darkness … A woman is poisoned … A millionaire bachelor becomes a father … . As a blackout gripped Grand Springs, Colorado, CEO Jonathan Steele was having quite a night. First, Cynthia Morgan - aka “Cinderella” - drank poison meant for him. Then his blackmailing half brother and sister-in-law were murdered, leaving Jonathan with his newborn baby nephew. In thirty-six hours, Jonathan’s life had changed forever. Then grateful-to-be-alive Cynthia offered to move into his home as a temporary nanny, a serious challenge to Jonathan’s bachelorhood. Conclusion: But jonathan comes to love baby Colton and Cynthia too. “I love you,” he said. “Both of you … . You are my world, Cynthia. I couldn’t survive without you.” He hoped to make things right with Cynthia’s mother and others in the family. Then he had to take Cynthia “to bed and make love with her until they were both breathless. Finally, there was a wedding to plan. But he faced the future with a sense of joy and hope he’d never felt before. With Cynthia at his side, he knew he could do anything … even give his heart for a lifetime” (p. 243).]

Mangan, Sherry. Cinderella Married: Or, How they Lived Happily Ever After. A Divertissement. New York: A. & C. Boni, 1932.

Mann, Catherine. The Cinderella Mission. Intimate Moments. New York: Silhouette, 2003.

[Backcover: Agent: Ethan Williams. Mission: Intercept international jewel thieves with information on the whereabouts of a missing agent. Deepest Secret: He’s spent his life searching for his parents’ killers, but the answers he seeks are closer than he thinks. Millionaire Ethan Williams risks death daily to save innocent lives. And they don’t come more innocent than Kelly Taylor, his longtime friend and new partner. Ethan has doubts about her until he watches Kelly, the sweet girl next door, transform herself into a seductive siren capable of conquering any man she wants — and she wants Ethan. But this mission means more than finding a missing agent. In a dangerous gamble Ethan must choose: Would he rather fulfill his need to know his past, or protect Kelly, the woman who could be his future? No one is who they seem. Flyleaf: One agent is already missing, and now the U.S.government’s most confidential secret is in danger of falling into a power-hungry dictator’s hands. The top-secret agents of ARIES are the world’s only hope. Agent Ethan Williams: Haunted by childhood memories of his parents’ deaths, this millionaire playboy is deadly serious about protecting those close to him. And these days that means his alluring new partner, Kelly Taylor – a woman he can’t keep close enough. Agent Kelly Taylor: She may look innocent, but this young linguist is no stranger to danger — or desire. She’s always wanted to be an operative, and she’s finally gotten her chance. But posing undercover as Ethan’s lover has awakened another longing. Samuel Hatch: A lifetime in the CIA has shown him secrets the rest of the world would never imagine. And as director of the top-secret ARIES agency, it’s up to him to make sure those secrets stay safe. His agents are the best of the best, and he’s not going to lose one now. Dr. Alex Morrow: Hatch’s most covert operative is missing somewhere in war-torn Europe. Morrow’s last message mentioned mythical jewels with devastating powers, but the transmission was unclear. If ARIES can’t locate the good doctor soon, the world may pay the price.]

Mansfield, Katherine. “Her First Ball.” In Katherine Mansfield. The Garden Party. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1922. Pp. 190-200.

[A girl from the country goes to her first ball with her city cousins. Mansfield describes the excitement of the arrival, the signing of the dance cards, and the beginning of the dance. Midway, a fat older man, dances with Leila. He cynically describes how she will soon be like the adults dressed in black in the balcony looking on. Leila feels crushed by the man’s dispiriting conversation, and wishes she were home. But the next on her dance card approaches her, and they dance, the lights, azaleas, dresses, pink faces, velvet chairs all come alive in “one beautiful flying wheel” and she again has a good time. She bumps into the fat man who says “Pardon,” but she smiles more radiantly than ever and doesn’t recognize him again.]

Mardol, Ana. “The Wish-Giver.” In No Man of Woman Born: Rewoven Tales. Acacia Moon Publishing, 2018. Kindle edition.

[The story begins with a history of a dragon who grants wishes. Those who could defeat her, but not kill her in battle received a wish. Many tried and went home injured, but enough people succeed to inspire stories. One day, a small child walks up the hill defiantly in the yellow clothes that mark one of the genders in this world. The children in yellow are associated with professions that remain woman-dominated in our society. When the townspeople see the child near the dragon, they worry, but the dragon is confused when the child approaches and sticks a wooden sword between the monster’s talons. It plays along and grants the child a wish. The four-year old asks to be a girl. The villagers are confused, and the dragon confirms that the child is a girl already. The little one insists that she knows, but the villagers label her a boy. She is tired of the misgendering. The dragon grants the child’s wish, and although she does not change physically, the villagers now see the girl for herself. Her parents are happy that their baby survived her encounter with the dragon.

While not an obvious Cinderella story, I include this item here because it contains the core elements of the fairy tale. The child is an underdog, misunderstood and misgendered. She earns her wish from her dragon fairy godmother, and her transformation becomes permanent due to the dragon’s magic.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

- - -.  “Cinder the Fireplace Boy.” In Cinder the Fireplace Boy and Other Gayly Grimm Tales. Acacia Moon Publishing, 2022. Kindle edition.

[A boy longs to be seen for his true self, but the world views him as a girl. After his mother passes, the traditional Cinderella plot begins with the verbal abuse and servitude common to the tale. The stepsisters call the boy Cinderella, but he would prefer Cinder. The child plants a hazel branch, and the tree helps him years later when the King hosts a festival. The story, which closely follows the Grimm plot initially, includes the helpful birds that supply a fine suit and slippers. The Prince dances with Cinder on each of the three nights until Cinder runs on the final night, losing a glass slipper. The stepsisters bruise and injure their feet trying to impersonate Cinder, and the boy reveals himself; the pair wed. The family attempts to come to the wedding, but the couple send them away, preferring to be happy.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Marshall, Peter Graham. Cinderella Revisited. Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 1993.

Martin, Victor L. Cenizosa, Florida Cinderella. New York: Vantage, 1981.

Mattingley, Christobel. New Patches for Old. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1978.

[A family migrates from Britain to Australia, where tensions arise between a teenager and her parents as the youth grows toward personal adulthood and a Prince Charming figure, who displaces a potentially Oedipally destructive situation with a mature relationship. A godmother figure helps the heroine to resolve her difficulties.]

-----. Southerly Buster. Sydney: Hodder & Stoughton, 1983.

[An initially happy life plummets toward disaster as a young girl has difficulty accepting her mother’s late pregnancy. As in New Patches for Old a fairy godmother counselor helps the youth to get beyond her Oedipal anger toward her parents and into a more mature non-sexual relationship with adults.]

Maxwell, Ted. Cinderella O’Reilly. Boston: Walter H. Baker Company, 1926.

McBain, Ed. Cinderella. New York: Henry Holt, 1986.

[Stylish Jenny’s a hooker with a million-in-one chance to get out of the life. Overweight Otto is a middle-aged barfly, without an enemy in the world, until someone kills him on a Florida highway. Matthew Hope is in bed with his ex-wife when he learns of Otto, and it spoils the rest of a good evening. As Matthew fits the pieces together the Cinderella plot unfolds, and Jenny makes her escape, but not to her dreams. “They always let me in the ballroom but the never let me dance.”]

McGuire, Seanan. Indexing. 47North, 2013. Kindle edition.

[McGuire combines urban fantasy with fairy tales by creating a world where the Narrative attempts to manifest and where agents fight to save everyone from well-known folklore. Sleeping Beauties can subdue cities, stepfamilies that were once happy tear themselves apart, and the story will always harm Rapunzel’s prince. The first book in the duology focuses on “The Pied Piper,” “Snow White,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “The Frog Prince” with the Grimm retellings being the basis for much of the discussion with Charles Perrault and authors receiving attention.

Cinderella appears when a wicked stepsister refuses to accept her fate. She becomes a serial killer who inserts herself into other families so that she can become a possible Cinderella, but her innate vices always lead her to kill the people who show her any kindness. The series presents a playful discussion of Aarne-Thompson’s tale types as well, but it does not include the more recent updates. The duology is for adults and includes language and other adult themes, but the series shows how fairy tales and secret agents mix well. The series was initially produced as single episodes to be read on the Kindle, so repetition consistent to oral narratives also appears.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

- - -. Indexing: Reflections. 47North, 2015. Kindle edition.

[In the second book in the duology, McGuire explores how stories are created. While Snow White’s larger tale type is used as the focus, Cinderella also receives attention as a main character chooses to walk away from her role as a wicked stepsister even though it turns her into a character outside of the stories. She refuses to obey the compulsions to hurt her Cinderella character and is horrified by how the narrative has warped the personalities of her mother and other sister as the story begins to fold. Her sacrifice will save her family, and the book begins to explore what is the cost of ignoring, working with, and being near stories without a deeper understanding of their meanings.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

McKinley, Robin. Deerskin. New York: Ace Books, 1993.

[A 309 page adaptation of Perrault’s Peau d’Ane. A powerful king and his beautiful queen have but one child, a daughter named Lissar. Upon the her death the queen makes the king vow to marry none but one as beautiful as she. At the queen’s death Ossin, a neighboring prince, sends Lissar a puppy named Ash to console her. When Lissar is seventeen the king puts on a ball for her. She is as beautiful as her mother, and the king announces that he will marry her. She locks herself in her room, but he breaks in through the garden, violently rapes and beats her, and leaves her for dead. Her dog Ash tried to defend her but was thrown against a wall. Both Lissar and Ash survive, however, and, through mutual support, flee to a hut in the mountains where in the fifth month she has a miscarriage. Her hair turns white and, under the guidance of a vision of her mother, she is given time for healing, a box to lock up the hideous past in, an albino deerskin to wrap herself in, and hope for a future. In spring Ash leads her from the mountain hut to the neighboring principality where, through the help of a new friend Lilac, she finds employment looking after a litter of Ossin’s dogs, who seem doomed to death. She heals the dogs, to everyone’s amazement. Ossin is supposed to marry, but loves none of the candidates. In his fantasy he imagines he would marry a mythical moonwoman, a Diana-like huntress who looks after needy creatures. He comes to see likenesses between Lissar and that dream. Ossin invites Lissar to his ball. Lissar has seen in the palace the portrait of herself and Ash which had been sent out years before announcing her own coming out ball. It helps her to recall that other life that she has boxed out of her consciousness. At Ossin’s ball she appears in a silver dress, wearing shoes, where before she had gone barefoot. Lilac has helped dress her in finery. Ossin and Lissar are hindered from dancing together by Trivelda, the more official candidate for his hand, but they make soulful eye contact. They meet in the garden and Ossin proposes. Now conscious of the disaster with her father, Lissar declines and flees in shame back to the hut where she becomes moonwoman caring for animals in need all about the countryside. That winter the hut is attacked by a stag. She, Ash, and the other dogs manage to kill the stag, but Ash is mortally wounded. She wills him back to life and they live on the stag’s carcass through the remainder of the winter. Next spring she is drawn out of the mountains once more by her mother’s voice and arrives at Ossin’s palace where his sister is to be married to a handsome suitor who, it turns out, is none other than Lissar’s father. Lissar appears at the wedding and tells at last the tale of her rape. As she speaks her clothes transform back to the bloody mess of the brutal scene: blood flows from her head where she was beaten and down her legs. As the story is told the father ages rapidly and leaves in disgrace. Lissar then flees and Ossin pursues. He obtains a colt from Lilac but is able to catch up with the fleet Deerskin only when she stops of her own will. Ossin tells of his love for her, scars and all, and they clearly have the approval of Ash and the other dogs, who have been instrumental in getting them together and keeping each other alive.]

McKnight, Jenna. Princess in Denim. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1998.

[According to the back cover, this romance offers a Cinderella switch: Here “Chloe Marshall’s deal with her best friend, Princess Moira of Ennsway, sounded too good to be true — and indeed, it came with a catch! King William of Baesland stunned Chloe from the moment she set eyes on his tall, dark and regal form. It seemed too much to hope that, along with the princess’ identity, riches and castle, she would gain this sexy man as a protector, a friend, a … fiancé. What would William do when he discovered his princess … was a fraud?” Actually, quite a lot. William has a jealous brother Louis who is trying to overthrow him. Chloe, with her American “y’all” sassiness, finds out the plot, interrupts a cabinet meeting, and saves William as Louis attacks him with a knife. William, much in love with his homespun beauty, bows to her grace: “‘I’m not very good at this business stuff,’ she smiled shyly; ‘We may have to go over it again and again.’ ‘All day?’ ‘Absolutely.’ ‘And all night?’ ‘Definitely.’ ‘And will you believe me when I tell you I love you?’ ‘I already do.’ He raised her fingers to his lips and kissed them. ‘Ah, Moira, you are one hell of a queen’” (p. 249).]

McLean, Monica. Cinderella Bride. A Silhouette Romance. New York: Silhouette Books, 1998. Copyright by Monica Caltabiano.

[Carter King had time only for a marriage of convenience. He was determined to acquire an heir the same way he acquired wealth — through shrewd business propositions. Marly Alcott seemed the best candidate. She was trustworthy, adored children, and needed money. The problem was that he could not trust himself to stick by the “no-love” stipulation. Marly had her worries too: what if he found out about her past? Could she keep her secrets, not the least of which was the great passion she felt for him. But the truth will out. They are both big enough to admit that they are in love with each other. What began as convenience ends up as true love: “You’ll always be my Cinderella,” he concludes.]

McMahon, Barbara. Cinderella Twin. New York: Silhouette Books, 1998.

[Backcover: Desire. Sister switch. Gorgeous, rich men like Cade Marshall were just a fairy tale to no-frills librarian Julianne Bennet. Then she secretely swapped lives with her glamorous identical twin sister and found herself in Cade’s kingdom. But when he discovered small-town Julianne’s deception, would he put an end to her dream-come-true? Cade had no use for flighty, no-substance women, and his beguiling neighbor had always been Queen of the Flirts. So why was he suddenly, royally desiring her? Was it her newfound depth, the sincerity and goodness alive in her eyes? Still, this provocative princess couldn’t convince Cade to surrender his reign as eternal bachelor ... could she? Flyleaf: She felt so alive! Her cheeks flushed in anticipation and excitement. Her eyes sparkled. Julianne actually looked like her glamorous twin sister! It wasn’t just features — those were identical. It was more attitude. This was without a doubt the wildest thing she’d ever done. It was pure fantasy; she couldn’t keep up this pretense for more than a little while. For once in her life she planned to experience the adventures her sister took for granted. No one would be hurt. As long as she kept it firmly in mind that this was only a fantasy. When her vacation ended, she’d return to the library, to her small town. But that was weeks away. For now, she was free and about to spend the day with the sexiest man she’d ever seen. Conclusion: But kisses and caresses, love words and love play mingle and they both realize that they really are in love. “I love you, Cade Mitchell.” “And I love you cupcake … Shall we head for Vegas and tie the knot?” But Juliette wants a traditional wedding, one her mother would be proud of. She “thought wistfully of the quiet life she had led in Virginia, the differences between then and now. Nothing would ever be the same with Cade. Gratitude and love filled her heart. She would live on the edge of the world with the only man who rang her every chime. Life was perfect” (p. 184).]

Meyer, Melissa. Cinder. New York: Macmillan, 2012.

[Cinder is the first book in a much larger series called The Lunar Chronicles. The series blends fairy tale elements and science fiction. In Cinder, Meyer retells retells “Yehsien” in a futuristic New Beijing with a cyborg protagonist, who loses an entire foot instead of slipper at the climatic ball scene. The novel focuses on the relationship between the protagonist and the prince and the protagonist and her fairy godmother figure while also establishing a larger series dependent on a missing heir.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Michaels, Fern. Cinders to Satin. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983.

[Fern Michaels is pen name for Mary Kuczkir and Roberta Anderson, who have pooled their energies to write twenty-two “historical novels,” including the best selling “Texas” novels. In Cinders to Satin, a novel about Irish immigrants, Callie James, who learned to survive in the squalor of Dublin’s slum, emigrates to New York to start a new life. Tough, high-spirited, and beautiful, she discovers friendship and encouragement from newspaperman Byrch Kenyon, who sees in the brash girl the woman she would one day become. Rossiter Powers, the rich son of a respected family, nearly destroys her. Hugh MacDuff, rich only in love and compassion, does his best to save her. But Callie — strong, smart, and determined to succeed, despite the loss of her son Rory — insists on taking charge of her life and makes her dreams come true with Byrch, who takes her back to Ireland for their honeymoon.]

Miles, Cassie. Heart and Soles. 1996.

[See the entry for Barbara Boswell, above.]

Mills, Claudia. Dynamite Dina. 1990.

[Ten year old Dinah Seabrooke has a flair for dramatics. When her baby brother is born she withdraws, jealously viewing herself as a put-upon Cinderella. “To keep herself from thinking, from feeling, Dinah began wiping the counters. From now on she would be an unpaid, unloved household drudge, like Cinderella, washing dishes, pushing strollers, maybe even scrubbing floors on her hands and knees. Her mother probably didn’t have any ashes for her to sit in. Maybe they could send her over to sit by the Kelley’s big kitchen fireplace, a soot-streaked maid watching while her friend Suzanne got ready for the ball.”]

Montresor, Beni. Cinderella. New York: Knopf, 1965.

Moore, Lorrie. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1994.

[Trapped in a fragile marriage? “I feel his lack of love for me”? Berie confronts the onslaught of middle age. A visit to Paris takes back through memory to her fifteenth summer, spent taking tickets at a theme park near Horsehearts, New York, called Storyland, where she worked as a ticket taker and her best friend Sils played Cinderella, giving children rides in her pumpkin coach. The novel takes its title from a painting Sils made the week she became Cinderella. Horsehearts' boys used to shoot frogs with BB guns, and Berie and Sils would pull out the BBs and patch up the wounded frogs. Sils’ painting shows two girls in Cinderella costumes and “two wounded frogs, one in a splint, one with a bandage tied around its eye: they looked like frogs who’d been kissed and kissed roughly, yet stayed frogs.” In the telling of the novel Berie moves back and forth between Paris and her nostalgic remembrances, updating her adult life with such reflections as “my one lone year of Housewife’s Bathrobe Disease, my husband at work but not me.” As Caryn James puts it (New York Time Book Review, Oct. 9, 1994, p. 7): “Berie’s stunning adult disappointments are as personal as marriage and as grand as the Louvre, which is always being cleaned, its entrances rearranged. ‘I’ve lived long enough to see great museums change,’ she says with some fresh mix of wonder and resignation,” feeling the poverty of her future, yearning for that long-lost feeling of coming upon a room in the gallery she had not entered before. A sense of humor keeps her going as she tells Daniel the one about a middle-aged woman who finds a frog, who explains that one kiss from her will turn him into a prince. She replies, “I’m sorry, but at this point in my life I’m actually more interested in a talking frog.”]

Moore, Louise Wilson. Cinderella at College. Philadelphia: 1921.

Moore, Marianne (1887-1972). Puss in Boots, The Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. Retold from Perrault. New York: Macmillan, 1963.

Morgen, Suzanne. “Sweetheart Ronin.” In Fairly Twisted Tales for a Horribly Ever After. Edited by Veronica Park, Ashley Ruggirello, and Kisa Whipkey. N.p.: REUTS Publications, 2014. Kindle edition.  

[Set in Japan, Morgen’s story offers a sequel to the traditional Cinderella storyline as her stepsister attempts to return from the dead and ruin her sister’s marriage to a samurai. She exchanges teeth for a spell that allows her to look like the Cinderella character. She watches as the Ronin sets the stepmother on fire, and she vows to destroy the Cinderella character as the samurai prepares to wed the imposter.] [Annotation by Martha M. Johnson-Olin]  

Morrah, Dave. Cinderella Hassenpfeffer. New York: Rinehart, 1948.

Mortimer, Lillian. An Adopted Cinderella. Chicago: T. S. Denison and Company, 1926.

Muller, Robert. Cinderella Nightingale. London: Arthur Barker, 1958.

[“What human blood was to a vampire, the devotion of the camera was to Iris Littlewood.” Raped by her father when she was thirteen, Iris tries to make a career for herself. She works first as a waitress, then does some modeling. Endowed with a mythically gorgeous body, but with little talent for acting, she gets a break with a photographer, Miles Meyerstein, who gives up his career to become her agent. He succeeds in getting publicity for her, and she becomes a top professional model. She begins as Mona Martin, but Miles gives her the name that gets her ahead–first Tess Nightingale, then Cinderella Nightingale. Miles falls in love with her, but she is incapable of loving in return, casts him off when he asks her to kiss him, takes a new publicity agent named Angell and manages, in Monte Carlo, to get cast in the leading role of Ed Hochstetter’s new movie Adam’s Eve. In a desperate effort to regain her attention Miles gambles everything away, even his Leica camera. She goes to Hollywood: it “seems our Cinderella found her Prince Charming” in Hochstetter, who is as cold as she. Miles goes to the beach with his old friend Sam, they meet another young girl who would like to be a starlet, and the story starts over, albeit cruel, empty, and painful.]

Napoli, Donna Jo. Bound. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2004.

[Napoli combines several variants in her retelling of a Chinese version of Cinderella, based mostly on “Yeh-hsien.” While removing the older story’s themes of sexuality and violence, she includes many details about living in early China and foot binding as she recounts the adventures of Xing-Xing whose marriage, despite not having a bound foot, offers a commentary on remaining true to one’s nature and not altering the body for success in love and life in general.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Nesbit, Edith. The Story of the Treasure Seekers. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1958. First published in 1899.

[After a loss of the family fortune, the daughter goes to work to regain what was lost, learning to appreciate the good things that she still possesses.]

-----. The Railway Children. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960. First published in 1906.

[After the imprisonment of her innocent father, the heroine learns through poverty what counts and what must be done to grow up as decent people do.]

Neville, Anne. Gold in Her Hair. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1979.

Newton, Adela. Cinderella Revisited. London: Evans, 1956.

Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where are you going, Where have you been?” First published in Epoch, Cornell University Press, Summer, 1966; rpt. in The Best American Short Stories 1967, ed. Martha Foley and David Burnett, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967, pp. 193-209; Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards 1968, The Wheel of Love and other Stories by Joyce Carol Oates, New York: Vanguard Press, 1970, pp. 34-54; and as the title story in Where are you going, Where have you been? Stories of Young America, Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, 1974.

[Everything about Connie, with her long dark hair, had two sides, one for home, where she is better friends with her mirror than with mother or stodgy sister June; and one for away from home. Her mall, movie, and drive-in side leads her first to Eddie, then to a visit by Arnold Friend. See the entry for Smooth Talk under Movies. Also see the essay by Schulz and Rockwood.]

O’Callaghan, Sheila Mary. Cinderella in Europe. London: Skeffington, 1951.

Orr, Zelma. Love Is a Fairy Tale. Harlequin American Romance 55. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1964.

[Ami Whitelake had surrendered her dreams long ago-or perhaps she’d never really harbored any. She had been wounded by a gunshot and her husband Ted had left her since it became apparent that she could have no children. She took joy in her work on Wagner’s Ranch in Southeastern Arizona where her love of nature an an injured mongrel dog she had rescued and a homeless boy she had taken provided her the sole source of joy. She was a good veterinarian, which helped to bolster her self esteem. She never expected to find love there, until she met Jeff Wagner. But he barely noticed her. Yet the fairy tale came true. They found each other; he married her and adored her, even though she could not bear children. When the words “I love you” came simultaneously from them, “Ami knew her fairy tale was no longer a tale, but true in every sense of the word.”]

Palwick, Susan. “Ever After.” In Year’s Best Fantasy 1988. Ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. Pp. 72-90.

[Caitlin, daughter of a poor woman, is groomed and cared for by her fairy godmother, Juliana, who takes her to balls and introduces her to aristocracy. There is even hope that she might marry the prince. The godmother is mistress to Lord Gregory; Caitlin loves Randolph, the Baron’s nephew. The Baron plans to kill Randolph to gain his brother’s property. To do so he must first kill old and ugly Alison, his wife, who is fond of Randolph. By inviting Juliana and Caitlin to the ball against Alison’s wishes, he hopes to place the blame for his wife’s death on Juliana and Randolph’s on Caitlin. Juliana, however, is a vampire and thwarts the Baron by killing him first, before he can enter a labyrinth where he has placed the lovers and where he had planned to kill Randolph. Upon rescuing Caitlin, Juliana must take her away, where their enemies cannot find them. But she must tell Caitlin that she is becoming a vampire too, even as her godmother is one. Though she will be beautiful ever after, her unfading beauty will always be a threat to her. Others will become jealous and attempt to slay her. Thus she is promised a long, ever beautiful and youthful life, but not be necessarily a happy one. It may be that there is a component of vampirism in most Cinderella stories, as people feed on others in hopes of becoming and remaining perpetually lovely. But Palwick’s vampires are gentle (at least Juliana is), concerned mainly with surviving the more aggressive oppressors like Lord Gregory, who knows Juliana’s powers but is hungry to manipulate them to satisfy his own greed.]

Penn, J. L. The Cinderella Curse. N.p.: n.p., 2010. Kindle edition.

[This novella, available only via e-book, focuses on the adventures of Cindy, a young woman cursed with turning into a pumpkin at midnight after she drops a basket of apples on a witch’s head. As she struggles to adapt to and accept her new life, she dates a series of men and receives much support from her best friend Lexi until she meets Officer James Jamison, who often rescues her from legal troubles brought about by her inconvenient transformations. His kiss ends the curse, and Cindy can at last live happily in human rather than pumpkin form.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Perle, Ruth Lerner. Cinderella With Benjy and Bubbles. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978.

Perry, Adaliza. The Cinderella Frock. Bangor, Maine: David Bugbee, 1851.

Ponicsan, Darryl. Cinderella Liberty. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.

[A sailor on liberty in Seattle, meets a hooker with a mulatto son who he tries to rescue. Although the woman is able to make brief attachments she remains elusive. Hoping to restore her confidence in life and the possibilities of human attachments he seeks her as she flees to the town of her childhood, but with no confidence of success. See Movies.]

Posner, Richard. Goodnight, Cinderella. New York: M. Evans, 1989.

[Dust jacket: Kimber Delany is the seventeen-year old flaky and endearing editor of the Westfield High School literary magazine. Her wealthy, handsome two-faced boyfriend Lou is giving her nothing but grief, while her pot-smoking brother and sulking father are driving her crazy. Troubles are contagious during this senior year at Westfield High because all Kimber’s friends are afflicted. Fickle Deena misses her collegiate boyfriend Phil madly and constantly pines for him. Bodacious Martha gets into more trouble than she can handle and has to be rescued by Lou, Mr. Suave and Heroic. Meanwhile Jason has a fervent and not-so-secret crush on Kimber and anyone else who looks his way. All this makes for a great state of social and romantic upheaval. New beaus, old flames, and straying loves all add to the intrigue. As the Senior Prom approaches, the lives of Kimber and her friend turn into a complicated web of love, jealousy, loyalty, betrayal, and confusion. On prom night, all is chaos, dates break up, fights break out. But later in the night, at a reunion on the beach, Kimber and her friends all reach important conclusions on life and love, vowing to put romantic conflicts in perspective and value their friendship and youth while they can.
Author Richard Posner has created a loveable and believable cast of characters for this witty, accurate portrayl. A teacher in the Long Island, New York, public school system, Posner has written other young adult books, including Sweet Pain and Sparrow’s Flight.]

Preston, Lillian E. Cinderblossom. Franklin, Ohio: Eldridge Publishing company, 1961.

Quinn, Daniel. “The Frog King, or Iron Henry.” In Black Thorn, White Rose. Ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. New York: Avon Books, 1994. Pp. 86-97.

[The Frog Prince suffers from amnesia. Questioned insistently by Iron Henry, only bits and pieces of the past are recoverable of the story he knows and does not know. In this story amnesia may be a blessing, but there is no happily ever after. The princess and the blow against the wall are but shadows, a shaft of emptiness.]

Ramsay, Anna. Cinderella SRN. London: Mills & Boon, 1985.

Rawling, Gerald. Cinderella Operation. London: Cassell, 1980.

Rawlins, Debbi. If Wishes Were … Husbands. Three Coins in a Fountain. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1998.

[The first in a set of three Three Coins in a Fountain romances about Gina, Libby, and Jessie, who make wishes in the famous Trevi Fountain. For the story of Libby, see Karen Toller Whittenburg’s If Wishes Were … Weddings; for Jessie’s story, see Jo Leigh’s If Wishes Were … Daddies. According to the back cover of If Wishes Were … Husbands, “When lovelorn Gina Hart recklessly wished to become a nun, the last thing she expected was to immediately meet a rich, handsome, eligible bachelor! But there before her was Jackson Maxwell Covington III, offering her his arm and escorting her to a party so elegant it put Cinderella’s ball to shame. Gina’s next wish was for the night to last forever — but though she fit perfectly in Jackson’s arms, what would he think when he found out her secret? Could they turn one night of passion into the love of a lifetime?” In the Epilogue, two months later, Gina writes Libby and Jessie, telling them what happened, how she lost her wallet and passport, then met Jackson, and how, thank God, her wish in the fountain didn’t come true!]

Razzi, Jim. Cinderella’s Magic Adventure. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1985.

Richards, Justin. “Cinderella and the Magic Box.” In Doctor Who: Time Lord Fairy Tales. London: Puffin Books, 2015. Kindle edition.  

[Richards begins the story by describing Cinderella’s bad luck and standard living conditions after her father’s remarriage. Like most variants, Cinderella remains kind despite years of adversity. Rumors suggest the local lord is a werewolf or a similar creature that eats raw meat. On the night of the ball, Cinderella runs into the Doctor, the 11th incarnation based on details about his hair and bow tie, when the T.A.R.D.I.S. lands in her backyard. The Doctor insists that Cinderella attend the ball, providing her a bath and a new outfit from his ship. He sends her to the ball to save her life, requiring that she return at midnight, when he will give her a ride home. He also implies that the ballroom contains an alien threat as the story ends.] [Annotation by Martha M. Johnson-Olin]  

Richards, Justin. Doctor Who: Time Lord Fairy Tales. Illustrated by David Wandle. London: Puffin Books, 2015. Kindle edition.  

[Richards attempts to blend the world of Doctor Who with its expansive settings and numerous incarnations of the Doctor with fairy tales tropes and early literature plots. The Doctor, which incarnation varies per story, tends to play the role of fairy godmother, enchantress, or source of magic and/or salvation for the tales. The mash up is not entirely successful as some of the stories lose the elements that make the tales rich, but the attempt is often humorous. At times, the additional alien elements mean the precise fairy tale being retold becomes unclear.  
Stories included are “The Garden of Statues,” “Frozen Beauty,” “Cinderella and the Magic Box,” “The Twins in the Wood,” “The Three Little Sontarans,” “Jak and the Wormhole,” “Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday,” “Little Rose Riding Hood,” “The Gingerbread Trap,” “The Scruffy Piper,” “Helana and the Beast,” “Andiba and the Four Slitheen,” “The Grief Collector,” “The Three Brother’s Gruff,” and “Sirgwain and the Green Knight.”] [Annotation by Martha M. Johnson-Olin] 

Riley, Eugenia. Stubborn Cinderella. Loveswept Romances #135. New York: Bantam Books, 1986.

[Backcover: Tracy O’Brien never expected to meet Prince Charming in the supermarket — especially when she was dressed in an old romper without a stitch underneath, and carrying a bucket of cleaning supplies! But Anthony Delano was suddenly there beside her, all potent temptation and determined to sweep the lady off her nearly bare feet. He made no secret of wanting to possess her, to conquer her heart as completely as he’d insisted on making over her life. But Tracy wasn’t looking to settle down yet; for her, the game had just begun. In this love match between two strong wills, could only surrender mean victory? Flyleaf: Before Tracy could catch her breath, she found herself pulled into his lap. “Anthony Delano, this is indecent!” “Oh, let’s hope so,” he said pointedly. He pulled the pink sweatband from her forehead, sending a riot of blond curls tumbling about her shoulders. “There, that’s better,” he said with an appreciative gleam in his eyes. “You’re beautiful, Tracy,” he murmured huskily. “You’ve got the body of a poster queen, and the face of the girl next door. I love those huge, innocent blue eyes, that perky, upturned nose, that full, kissable mouth. Now you must know I believe in complete honesty &151; “Uh-oh, here it comes.” Slowly he drew a monogrammed handkerchief from his pocket. “Is it so awful you’re expecting me to cry?” He laughed. “Tracy, I think you’re adorable but—” “But?” “I refuse to kiss a woman with a smudge on her nose, no matter how delectable that nose may be.” He leaned over and gently wiped the grime from the tip of her nose. “You know, you might scrup up pretty good.” “Why, you—” Tracy’s mouth was perfectly poised for a kiss, and Anthony took advantage of the situation, capturing her lips with his own. With a soft moan of surprise and pleasure, she surrendered. About the author: Eugenia Riley: I’m a preacher’s kid, the third of four children, and I was born in the small oil town of Luling, Texas. I recently revisited the area with my father, and got to see again the weatherbeaten house which, some thirty odd years ago, had been my first home. There’s a towering pine tree there, and my father told me they’d planted it the year I was born. I looked at the tree and thought, “Gee, I’m that old?” We moved around a lot during my youth and adolescence. Our existence was fairly isolated, and thanks to gifted parents I discovered both books and music at an early age. During my teenage years I spent virtually every free moment either writing poetry or practicing the piano. I always loved composers whose music was full of passion — Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky. I met my future husband while in college. He was a helicopter pilot, just back from Vietnam, and he told me that soon after he met me, the nightmares resulting from his war experiences disappeared. That, I decided was grounds for marriage! We married soon after my graduation and have been together for fifteen happy years now. Our two daughters are approaching their teens. They keep life interesting! Although by the time my girls were in school a number of my poems had been published, fiction was something which eluded me until recently. To my chagrin, I never could seem to write a workable short story. It finally occurred to me that, while I could not make a statement in 5,000 words, I could in 50,000, or more. I’m verbose, I guess. I also love to tell stories, and I seem to compose in spaghetti-bowl style, rather than in single servings. My first novel was set in the 1840s in my native Texas. I remember driving all the way to Washington-on-the-Brazos on a Monday to begin researching my historical romance, only to discover that the museum there was closed. I had to ask myself ruefully, “You’re planning to write a novel, and you don’t even know what days the blasted museum is open?” Somehow I managed not only to write that first novel, but also to see it published. My highest praise on that work came from several readers who told me they cried when they reached the book’s climax. No greater compliment can ever be paid me. People need to feel; it’s a major reason I write, and a major reason I read. Being a published author has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my entire life. It is also quite humbling. Communicating with another human being in this intimate fashion is quite a responsibility. I hope I will never take it lightly. I try to throw myself into everything I write, and I try to fill my writing with the emotional intensity that is in the music I love.]

Rimmer, Christine. Cinderella’s Big Sky Groom. New York: Silhouette Books, 1999.

[In the Montana Mavericks Series. Backcover: Wedding bells in Whitehorn? Ross Garrison was everything Lynn Taylor ever dreamed of in a prince. And in one fairy-tale night, she gave him her innocence — and her heart. Now everyone was talking about how the prim schoolteacher had turned up in the sexy lawyer’s bed, until Ross gave the townsfolk something to really talk about and claimed Lynn as his bride-to-be! Lynn knew Ross was only trying to protect her honor. After all, this confirmed bachelor was about as far from marriage as a man could be. Unless, of course, he fell in love. Flyleaf: Montana Mavericks: Return to Whitehorn, the home of bold men and daring women, a place where rich tales of passion and adventure are unfolding under the Big Sky. Seems this charming little town has some mighty big secrets. And everybody’s talking about Jennifer McCallum: Whitehorn’s little darling has started kindergarten, just like every five-year-old. Except Jennifer isn’t just any school-age tot, she’s an heiress with a trust fund that might prove tempting to folks with bad intentions. Ross Garrison: As a lawyer, he’s got to protect little Jennifer’s interests. But as a man, Ross knows getting close to the girl’s sweet teacher could lead to consequences a confirmed bachelor isn’t ready for! Lynn Taylor: It isn’t everyday a plain Jane like Lynn is swept off her feet by a prince. Now the rumors are flying that prim Miss Lynn is about to compromise her virtue to a certain irresistible lawyer.]

Ritchie, Anne Isabella (née Thackeray, 1837-1919). Cinderella. Boston: Loring, 1867. Included in Five Old Friends and Young Prince. London: Smith, Elder, 1868; rpt. in Victorian Fairy Tales. Ed. Jack Zipes. Pp. 101-126.

[The story is inaugurated from the neighbors’ point of view. They have known Colonel Ashford for many years, knew his first wife and the widow Lydia Garnier and her two daughters, too. They tell how the Colonel and Lydia had been fond of each other in their youth, before they had each married others, and how suitable they would be for each other as fate took their spouses from them. The Colonel is now a wealthy member of Parliament. His daughter Ella cares for him, loves her books, loves keeping the house in order, and makes him very proud. She is the one who inspired him to run for Parliament. When Mrs. Garnier becomes Mrs. Ashford and moves in she feels that Ella is old beyond her years and should enjoy childhood as a child. She takes her books from her lest she grow up too fast, removes her mother’s jewelry (and never returns it), and advances her own daughters as adolescents, ready to come out in the world. She is, moreover, increasingly jealous of Ella’s hold on her father’s affections, and does what she can to put distance between them. They go to London to stay in Lady Jane’s apartment. They would leave Ella behind but the father reads Ella’s desire to go along in her eyes and insists that she come too. In London Mrs. Ashford would cloister Ella with the maid, since going out is unfitting for so young a girl. But Lady Jane arrives unexpectedly, dresses Ella in fine clothes, and takes her with her to the soiree. Lady Jane’s outriders are workhouse boys–starved as churchmice when Lady Jane first employed them, but fattened up now and ready for situations. Her coachman is named Raton, a man with a red face and wig, who likes to be home by midnight. At the soiree Charles Richardson falls instantly for Ella and does all he can to avoid the Ashford girls, Lisette and Julia, who have come to the soiree purposefully to snare him. Next day Mrs. Ashford and her daughters are quite huffy at not having seen much of Richardson, especially since Lisette is certain he loves her, though he does not show it. They are amazed that Lady Jane has shown up and that she took Ella to the soiree, though they did not see her. There is to be a ball at the Palace next night. Richardson has invited Ella to join him, though she says nothing of that to Mrs. Ashford. She asks if she might attend, but Mrs. Ashford won’t hear of it. Lady Jane overhears, however, and goes out herself and gets a fabulous white dress and satin slippers, along with lovely antique buckles for Ella. After the others leave she takes Ella to the ball herself. This time Mrs. Ashford and her daughters do see Ella and almost risk making a scene with Lady Jane for ignoring orders, but none dare say a thing, at least not until the season is over. Richardson dances with no one but Ella, learns her name but not who she is. Lady Jane leaves at midnight, telling Ella to come with her or go home with the Ashfords. Richardson insists that she stay. She speaks with Mrs. Ashford, who won’t hear of her coming home with them — their carriage is full! Ella rushes out trying to catch Lady Jane but the carriage has gone. A cab offers to take Ella to Onslow Square, and as she gets in she loses one of the buckles. Richardson hears her giving the cab driver the address and figures out who she is. Next day he comes to the apartment bearing the lost buckle. He asks to meet with Colonel Ashford and obtains consent for what he wants — Ella’s hand in marriage. Ella is so happy that even Lisette and Julia relent. All give them their blessing. The author of this story, Anna Isabella Ritchie, was William Makepeace Thackeray’s daughter, and revised several tales, including Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, and Riquet à la Houppe to comment on proper Victorian manners. She wrote the introduction for The Fairy Tales of Madame D’Aulnoy (1895).]

Savage, Felicity. “Ash Minette,” Fantasy & Science Fiction. 86, no. 5, Whole No. 516 (May 1994), 49-65.

[After the death of their mother, then a few years later the death of their alcoholic father, the three daughters attempt to survive in the slums of Riverbank, Minette, the eldest, working as seamstress for Madame Carolla, Libby, the middle girl, as a prostitute, and Ella, the beautiful youngest child, under the protection of her older sisters. The Baron of Helmany has a ball to which the sisters are invited. Ella is left at home for her own protection. The “fairy godmother” is a degenerate great lady who seeks out beautiful girls whom she sponsors in society. All three of the daughters yearn for wealth, comfort, and love. All are ruined by the degenerate class structures. Savage follows the Grimm story as Libby mutilates Minette’s feet in hope of tricking the Baron into marrying her. But the Duchess sees through the pathetic ruse, and Minette is cast out, uglier than ever, unable to walk or accept her condition, as naïve and lovely Ella “succeeds.”]

Schimel, Lawrence. “Ladyslipper.” Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine (Issue #22) 6 (Winter 1994), 41.

[The Faery Godmother goes to Venice to get Cinderella her Carnival outfit–a small pink bird mask and glass slippers. As Cinderella flees the ball at midnight one of her slippers catches in the roots of a tree. “Because the slipper had traveled through Faerie and been infused with magic it began to transform. The heel took root and began to grow, lifting the body of the slipper into the air. The toe of the slipper split, and the sides peeled away into petals. And a new orchid was born.” This is the story heard from the Ladyslipper herself, which you can hear too, if you listen carefully and don’t block the sun.]

Schroeder, Alan. Smoky Mountain Rose. New York: Bantam Books, 1993.

[For a plot summary, see Schroeder’s adaptation of the book in 1997, illustrated by Brad Sneed, as a Dial Book for Young Readers, under Illustrated Children’s Books - Perrault.]

Selter, Edith. Cinderella At Home. Franklin, Ohio: Eldridge Entertainment House, 1930.

Seymour, Mrs. Arthur T. A Camp Fire Cinderella. Boston: W.H. Baker, 1918.

Sharpe, Bettie. Ember. N.p.: n.p., 2011. Kindle edition.

[This version, available in e-book format and at http://www.bettiesharpe.com, combines witchcraft, eroticism, and Cinderella by exploring how Prince Charming’s personality may become a problem. When a witch curses, the prince, Adrian Juste, to charm everyone around him, he grows up to be vain and spoiled since everyone willing does whatever he asks, whether that is to stop a war or enter his bed. When Ember becomes a witch to avoid the compulsion, she begins to become the one person Adrian wants, for she rejects him. Sharpe also transforms the classic fairy tale with former prostitutes playing stepmother and stepsisters and highlights strong bonds between women as the only evils are poverty and compulsion, with the bonds of family, whether by birth or by marriage highlighted throughout. Ember creates the persona of a Cindergirl to avoid Adrian initially and to allow the commoners to overlook that a prince married a witch. The novella explores themes of obedience, freedom, and loyalty though it is best suited for adult audiences.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Shaw, Simon. Killer Cinderella. London: Victor Gollancz, 1990.

[Killer Cinderella is a husband in drag, who manages to work himself back into a life after abuse and scorn from about everyone he knew — his superiors at the bank, his so-called friends, and, especially, his scornful wife. In fact, Mark Harvey detests his wife Madeleine, who flaunts her affair as part of her scorn of poor Mark. He accidentally kills her and rather than go to the police he hides her body in a swimming pool under construction next door at the house of a new neighbor, Reg Talbot, who neither of them have met. The body gets buried next day under newly poured concrete. But Talbot, a car dealer, had Maddie for dinner. So Mark cross-dresses and goes in her place. The only real problem he has is with the size of his big feet. But he covers that well and the flirtation leads toward romancing that calls upon his greatest ingenuity as he attempts to encourage but at the same time ward off the affair. Meanwhile he discovers that he likes being Medeleine, and has a real flair for playing the femme fatale. But he runs into trouble with one of Maddie’s feminist friends, who misses her, and Maddie’s disappointed lover, who misses her too. They figure that Mark must have done something with his wife, and begin an investigation of her whereabouts. Mark manages to get rid of the lover in a Civil War Re-enactment Society where another accident takes care of the “investigation” for him. The police and the press continue their own investigation, however, goaded on by the feminist. Maddie’s disappearance becomes newsworthy. Mark finds support from a newsman who helps him escape even as Maddie’s shoes are being called into the investigation. Mark uses his former employment at the bank as a means of robbing the bank, disguised once again as a woman, only to bump into Reg Talbot, who thinks that he has at last found Maddie again. Talbot is forced into the boot of a car at gun point and Mark makes his get away. Talbot is found in the abandoned car, his pool is excavated, and the real Maddie’s body is found. Talbot is accused of the murder, and the newspaperman gets fame for solving the mystery. Mark moves to Brazil where he lives in luxury as a wealthy, eccentric woman.]

Shore, Jane. The Cinderella Game. An Avalon Career Romance. New York: Avalon, 1990.

[Dust jacket: Sandy Childs would not consider herself a Cinderella, but her life is no glamorous fairy tale, either. Overworked and underpaid, Sandy spends her days picking out fabrics for cranky customers; she pins all her hopes on the day she can afford art school. Wnen Prince Charming comes to call, Sandy almost doesn’t recognize him. Jason Grant dresses like a hobo, and he rides the bus rather than a fine white steed. He certainly is handsome, though, and so lovable that Sandy can’t resist him for long. Soon her life does begin to resemble a fairy tale. Jason gets her an apprenticeship at the Brae-Mill clothing factory, introducing her to the exciting world of fashion design. When he asks her to help him with Brae-Mill’s amateur theater production, Sandy is glad to pitch in. As opening night approaches, it seems Sandy and Jason are on the way to their own happy ending. And then, in steps a real-life wicked witch who threatens to ruin Jason’s play — and Sandy’s chance to live happily ever after … .]

Sinclair, Tracy. The Princess Gets Engaged. New York: Silhouette Books, 1997.

[Backcover: If fairy tales could come true … She was a dead ringer for the runaway princess. So American tourist Megan Delaney was hired to impersonate the missing monarch — at her arranged engagement to the real prince! Riches galore would be Megan’s during the royal masquerade. As would the constant company of Earth’s most romantic would-be groom: Prince Nicholas de Valmontine. Regal, handsome, yet reluctant to wed without love, Nick enchanted tender-hearted Megan — and she selflessly wanted him to savor a storybook marriage when his true bride returned. So she wooed Nick — and won him — preparing to sacrifice all, but wishing her own fairy tale would end happily ever after … with Nicholas as her husband. Flyleaf:Rules for Proper Princess Impersonation. 1) When approached by a perfect stranger offering you the opportunity to live in a castle and act like a princess, be sure your best friend can accompany you, so you don’t have to sit through all those state dinners alone. 2) Remember, Prince Charmings don’t marry commoners. Agree to stand in for the princess during her engagement to the prince-next-door only if you’re guaranteed not to fall in love with him. 3) Don’t be kind, considerate, and gentle if the princess you’re impersonating is known to be none of these things. It will make your intended think that he’s getting the woman of his dreams. 4) When your prince discovers that you’re not the princess he thought you were, make sure he realizes that you are the princess he wants! Conclusion: We learn that the real princess did not want to marry the prince, nor he her. Thus she disappeared. But when she learns that he is, in fact, planning to marry the look alike, she returns like a stepsister, and the King and Queen object to Nick’s plans. But the mother is won over and the wedding proceeds. When Megan was close enough to see Nick’s face clearly, her doubts vanished. In a confident voice she said, “I do.” At the end of the ceremony Nick took her in his arms and kissed her tenderly. That was when Megan realized this wasn’t the end of the fairy tale — it was the beginning (p. 249).]

Slipper and the Rose, The. London: Namara Publications: Quartet Books, 1976.

[A novel made from the movie.] See the annotation for the film under Movies and Television.

Smallwood, Joseph Roberts. The New Newfoundland. New York: Macmillan, 1931.

Smiley, Jane. A Thousand Acres. New York: Fawcett Columbine Book, published by Ballantine Books, 1991.

[Ginny and her two older sisters grow up on their father’s farm in the midwest. In the midst of the 1970’s farm crunch her father decides to divide the farm between the three daughters. The decision ultimately brings to light a host of family issues, including child abuse, that Ginny has held locked away since childhood. Owning up to the past does not come easily to a family which does not talk about such matters and always presents itself well.]

Smith, Jane. Play It Again Cinderella. Calgary: Career Dynamics, 1993.

Snell, Ted. Cinderella on the Beach. Nedlands, W.A.: University of WA Press, 1991.

Snyder, Midori. Tattercoats. In Black Thorn, White Rose. Ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. New York: Avon Books, 1994. Pp. 173-202.

[The story combines motifs of Tattercoats, Donkey Skin, and Allerleirauh. Lilian, daughter of the Queen, has been married to Edward for seven years. They have a daughter Rose and son Arthur. Their lives have been contented and productive. But their bed has become indifferent. Lilian remembers how her mother on the night before Lilian’s wedding came to her and spoke of her own life brought to fruition by gifts in three walnut shells. One contained three gowns; one a gold thimble, a spindle, and a ring; and the third a strange coat made of the skins of many animals. She tells her daughter that “marriage begins as a clear broth, then thickens into a roux.” The next day Lilian seest Edward eyeing a servant girl, so she decides to seduce him. At a grand feast celebrating midsummer night, she appears in a gown that shines like the sun. All are amazed at her beauty, including Edward. But as the evening progresses she sees him looking at the servant girl as he once looked at her. Edward goes away to the horse fair for a couple of days. Lilian puts on the fur gown and is amazed at how exotic it makes her feel. She slips out at night and goes to a bridge where she awaits Edward’s return. As he passes over she confronts him, the coat open and her naked body gleaming. She says her name is Tattercoats and seduces him. As he sleeps on the bank beneath the bridge, she places in his hand the golden thimble, then returns to the great house. Next day he seems more friendly and appreciative of Lilian. A few days later there is a feast for the King and Queen. Lilian appears in a gown as radiant as the moon and all are amazed. The Queen smiles knowingly. As the evening ends, Edward insists on accompanying the royal coach to the bridge. Lilian puts on the skin a second time and hastens to the bridge where she finds Edward waiting. After their love making Edward sleeps and Lilian places the spindle in his hand. She hastens back home with mud on her and smelling of grasses. A few days later she takes her daughter into the garden and gathers herbs good for seasoning a roux. At dinner she wears the gown as bright as all the stars. Edward is amazed at how tasty an otherwise plain soup might be. Rose explains the herbs. That evening Edward says he must go out to catch the hare. Lilian hastens to meet him in her disguise. This time she leaves a ring in his hand. At harvest feast Edward surprises her by taking the ring from his pocket and giving it to her. It fits as if it were made for her. That evening Edward says that he must go out to look after a recalcitrant bull he has bought. Lilian looks for the tattercoat but it is gone. In a panic she goes to the bridge, planning to explain everything. There she meets a strange man in the tattercoat. She recognizes him as Edward who tells her he has known from the moment he touched her body who she was. They acknowledge each other’s deceits and meet again under the bridge.]

South, Sheri Cobb. The Cinderella Game. New York: Bantam, 1993.

[Backcover: All that glitters … . When Wendy Miller lands a summer job as a seamstress for America’s Teen Beauty Pageant she is thrilled. Then handsom Spencer Fife mistakes her for one of the contestants and sweeps her off her feet. Though Wendy wants to tell him the truth, she can’t resist playing the part of Florida’s Teen Beauty. Will Wendy reveal her Cinderella identity and risk losing her Prince Charming? Flyleaf: Spencer drew me close, taking both my hands in his. “Thank you for dinner,” I told him, gazing up into his bright blue eyes. “Everything was just perfect.” “No, not quite,” he said. “There’s still one thing missing.” “What?” For an answer, Spencer bent his head and kissed me gently on the lips. “That,” he murmured. Hearing no argument from me he kissed me again, more thoroughly this time. For a moment, it was just like a dream. Then reality reared its ugly head as Spencer whispered into my ear, “You’re really a special girl, Clarissa.” He might as well have thrown a bucket of cold water in my face. It was terrible to hear myself called by someone else’s name at such a romantic moment. Conclusion:As we laughed and kissed a second time, I decided that being plain old Wendy was just fine with me. I wouldn’t trade places with any other girl in the world?]

Spain, Nancy (1917-1964). Cinderella Goes to the Morgue. UK: Black Dagger, 1991.

Spooner, Cecil. My Irish Cinderella. New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1930.

Stoutenberg, Adrien. Good-bye to Cinderella. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960.

Stuart, Alex. A Cruise for Cinderella. Toronto: Mills and Boon Ltd., 1956; rpt. in the Harlequin Classic Library, Toronto: Harlequin, 1962, with several reissues in several countries.

[Backcover: “You’re not his kind of girl!” A gloriously romantic Mediterranean cruise, and a new wardrobe! It seemed like a dream come true to Janie. And so was her dream of Prince Charming. Paul Cortes, the handsome, famous Spanish bullfighter, seemed to be falling in love with her. But David McNab insisted that the dream was impossible. “Like calls to like, Janie,” he said. “And you’re not like him — you’re like me!” Could David possibly be right? Flyleaf: “I suppose you think you’re in love?” David’s eyes held affectionate mockery as he asked the question. Janie drew a deep unhappy breath. “I didn’t say so —” “You didn’t have to,” David said. “It sticks out a mile. We know each other too well, Janie.” He was suddenly grave. “Paul’s not your kind, Janie, and loving him will only hurt you.” “What is — my kind?” Janie asked faintly. David’s hand found hers, the palm hard, callused and very strong. “I’m your kind,” he said, “just as you’re mine. My kind of girl, Janie, and you know it, really, deep down inside you. Like calls to like, and always will.” There was a tense little silence and then David asked, “Well, Janie, shall I go?”]

Stuart, Anne. Cinderman. Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1994.

[Suzanna Molloy trails a top-secret scientist, Dr. Daniel Crompton, who experiences a chemical fusion lab accident that leaves him invisible, but with mysterious strengths. With his newfound power of invisibility he keeps catching and kissing Suzanna unawares. His gaze becomes so powerful that it can reduce objects–and Suzanna’s resistance–to cinders. In him she discovers her fantasy man, her prince, and the only way to keep him is to keep him alive.]

Stiles, Norman, “Another Cinderella.” In Free to be a Family, by Marlo Thomas. Pp. 25-3l.

[Cinderella learns to do book reports and things like that before going to the ball; and she doesn’t go to the ball to get married, but to “become a person, stuff like that.”]

Straub, Peter. “Ashputtle.” In Black Thorn, White Rose. Ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. New York: Avon Books, 1994. Pp. 281-305.

[Told by an overweight, middle-aged schizophrenic kindergarten teacher named Mrs. Asche who is unkindly referred to as Mrs. Fat Asche. She relates efforts to control her classroom, deal with parents who worry about the disappearance of their daughter, and solicitous administrators, but most of all with her own psyche as she ponders the yellow wallpaper, her yellowing body, and her lost past. Her deceased mother sits like a stone on her heart. She attempts to buy new wallpaper but is shown the very yellow paper her mother had decorated her room with and vomits convulsively. She buys the paper for reasons she cannot understand. In her reflections she remembers her mother’s death, her father remarrying a beautiful women, the unkind stepsisters, and an experience in which she defecates a long log on the white rug of her room, smears herself, the walls, and the carpet all over with it, and then wanders into nowhere. She thinks of a lost child deep within ashes, her hands and feet mutilated, her face destroyed by fire, an irreplaceable child. Deep in the muddy grave the mother feels the tears of the lost daughter and a dove consoles her by singing “All will pass.” She submits her resignation to the principal so that she may move on. He accepts it and promises a letter of recommendation next day. He keeps his promise, reassuring her that she has done a wonderful job dealing with the girl’s disappearance. She replies, “My decisions make themselves … . All will pass. All will change. I am a serene person.” She pities him, almost certain that he will be forced out of his job next year.]

Stradling, Kate. Soot and Slipper. Eulalia Skye Press, 2019.

[In an introduction to the novel, Stradling claims this retelling is heavily based on Charles Perrault’s version, but that label, which even appears on some of the various book covers, undersells the plot. The heroine is passive, but the gowns, themes, and plot twists all belong to Stradling. She creates a vibrant retelling that is suitable for young adults as she explores what happens if the stepmother fakes Cinderella’s death and how a young prince might refuse to marry from grief. After a meddling fairy convinces the obedient Eugenie to attend the ball, the prince and his love are reunited, and the stepmother’s schemes are revealed. While the love story is better suited to teens, the book includes a well-developed prince character, making it useful choice if considering his character development.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Strohmeyer, Sarah. The Cinderella Pact. New York: Dutton, 2006.

[Nola Devlin lives in Princeton, NJ, and works for Sass!, a New York “celebrity magazine with an edge,” where she is “a far too undervalued editor” (p.2). When her in-house boss, Lori DiGrigio, discriminates against her and fails even to read closely her application to write a moral advice column, Nola creates Belinda Apple, a chic, gorgeous, witty, and thin British sophisticate who is pursued by Nigel Barnes, Sass!’s other high-profile columnist. All readers yearn to be like Belinda, but no one knows exactly who she is. Nola and her two closest friends, Nancy and Deb, customarily have lunch together the first Monday of each month . All three are considerably overweight, and when they are denied their window table on Nassau Street, most likely because the new ownership would save that table for attractive thin people who might draw in customers, they form a “Cinderella Pact” to lose weight. This sets up Strothmeyer’s amusing satire on diets, weight-loss programs, exercize gurus, and long-established family habits of eating plenty of starchy food at family gatherings. As Belinda’s popularity grows, more and more people wonder who she is, and David Stanton, the over-eighty self-assured moralist and owner of Sass!, leads a campaign headed-up by Lori to find out who Belinda is, and it seems that Nola’s double identity is beginning to catch up with her. Her skinny younger sister Eileen wants to marry Jim, who runs the Valley Fitness Gym and is always preaching at Nola to lose weight his way. But Eileen’s family think that in an orderly world the older daughter should marry first, fearing that few choose fat women to be their bride. Eileen can’t talk with Nola about her problem, so she writes to Belinda, who suggests that perhaps Nola does not wish to marry nor to be Eileen’s bridesmaid. Talk to her, Belinda advises, but that’s too taboo a subject to talk about or even for her parents to talk about. So Eileen and her parents keep their worries secret, except from Belinda.

In this story it seems that everyone has a hidden identity and yearns to be transformed into someone else. Deb has her stomach stapled to lose weight fast. She discovers she can’t stand her husband, who is unsympathetic to her rapid weight loss, so she gets caught up in other secret (then not-so-secret) love relationships. She’s a different person in her slim body, though confused about what she wants to be. That marriage ends in divorce and hatred. Nancy’s husband also objects to her new weight “program,” which totally preoccupies her, and she resents him in return, concluding that the only reason she married him was because she was too fat to get anyone else. They ultimately come to a reconciliation. Meanwhile, Nola seems to be getting nowhere with her efforts. She drops 20 pounds, then, tormented by some turn of events, gains it all back it seems instantly. Her car catches on fire, and she is helped by a tall handsome young man that she really likes and concludes that he is so capable with machines and dealing with fires or whatever that he must be Chip, who works in maintenance. They seem to be striking up a good relationship, but he disappears in the fall. It turns out that he is David Stanton Jr., heir to Sass!, who has already begun to figure out that Belinda is really Nola, especially when Belinda mysteriously disappears when they are trying to interview her in London and Nola, her copy-editor, has to write the column for her, which she does better even than the mysterious Belinda. Eventually Nola does get to the ball, disguised as Belinda and accompanied by Nigel Barnes (who is gay); only a couple of people recognize her. In the end the false identities are all dropped, Eileen gets married to Jim, Nola pays for a fabulous honeymoon, she and David finally get together after he has been writing to Belinda to convince her that he loves Nola. Even the catholic priest stops giving befuddled advice. The book is quite brilliant in its dialogue, witty allusions to the power and products of the fashion industry and the ways in which people manipulate themselves and each other to maintain illusions. The book begins with Nola’s observation: “We are all Cinderellas, no matter what our size. This is what I, Nola Devlin, fervently believe! I believe that within everyone of us is a woman of undiscovered beauty, a woman who is charming and talented and light of heart. I believe that all we need is a fairy godmother to dust us off and bring out our potential and, while she’s at it, turns the rats in our lives into coachmen” (p.1). The ensuing tale demonstrates the wisdom of Nola’s belief, even though she has to be her own godmother. The book’s Forward, “The Fabulous Belinda Apple’s Guide to Indulging Your Inner Cinderella,” consists of ten tongue-in-cheek guidelines to which the mores of our everyday wish-life commonly ascribe and which the story plays out in amusingly transformative ways. The novel has inspired the film Lying to be Perfect.

Teller, Danielle. All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella's Stepmother. William Morrow, 2018.

Teller gives Cinderella’s stepmother a back story. She begins as a laundry maid and seeks a different future for herself. She changes her fate several times by becoming a maid, the head of a brewery, and a wet nurse to Ella after her third child and common-law husband die. Her careful planning and clever mind win her the appreciation of her second husband. Ella, her father, the stepsister, and the stepmother live together for about five years with many of the classic Cinderella elements coming from single incidents, such as Ella being forced to do laundry for a day after being careless with her gown. Teller explores how the story of one family’s normal tensions, such as sibling rivalry, were recast as the stock fairy tale by those at court, suggesting the Cinderella story occurs without magic and amputations before being spun into something far grander to protect a future queen’s reputation. The stepfamily receives a neutral ending at a nunnery, and the author also explores the tensions early women navigated when their options were limited by social station. [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Tempest, Jan. Cinderella Had Two Sisters. Lindford Romance Library. London: Mills and Boon Ltd., 1963; rpt. in large print edition, Anstey, Leicestershire: F. A. Thorpe, 1985.

[Esmeralda and Jacobina have a younger sister Cindy. Alda is plain, but a musician with good taste. Jac is fat, placid, and quite insecure. But Cindy is pretty, blonde, blue-eyed, and popular. Their father is dead. The mother spends most of her time playing bridge, talking down the two older girls, and doting on Cindy. At a school pantomime of Cinderella, Cindy gets the lead and the two sisters are cast as the uglies. The casting, unfortunately, sticks, to Alda and Jac’s chagrin, as Cindy is praised at their expense. Alda is, in truth, the real Cinderella of the story. Besides being the focal point of the narrative, she does the kitchen work and generally looks after the others. She falls in love with Kel, a shy musician who does not see well, but who is substituting for Tom Torans as pianist in a trio. Cindy’s godmother sends cousin Evelyn to visit the sisters and to get some rest. He has acquired fame as a TV celebrity–Peerless Percy, a standup comic. He quickly decides to marry Alda because she is caring and can cook. He assumes that, his being so fine a catch, she will surely accept his proposal. Kel hears about the proposal and is secretly crushed, though he is too shy to make his love known to Alda, even though she helps him perform at the piano when his eyesight fails. Kel’s dog Beetle falls over a cliff. Kel almost falls over too, but Alda saves him, leads him down the precipice, saves him again when he slips, rescues Beetle from a rising tide, and then guides them all back safely to the top. In the process Kel finds out that Alda is not engaged to Evelyn and that she in fact loves him. It turns out that Kel is really Kelvin Kervan, the oldest son of the Kerven’s Kandies family, who was cast out by his father when he refused to enter into his father’s business but became an orchestra conductor instead. Though he had a most promising start as conductor of a neighboring orchestra, because of a head injury he lost his job and has been working incognito as an itinerate pianist. Mr. Bures, the conductor of the local civic orchestra and a friend of Alda’s father, has always admired Alda’s piano playing and hopes that she might perform with the orchestra before he retires. She tells him of Kelvin, who might become his replacement. He knows of Kelvin’s fine work and has wondered what had happened to him. Kel finally gets up his courage to speak of love to Alda, though he does so by sending her roses under the name of Beetle and uses a letter from his mother in which she mentions how glad she is that Alda is Kelvin’s fiance. Alda figures out that that is tantamount to a proposal, accepts, agrees to help him learn the orchestra music until he regains his health. She also agrees to appear as soloist with the orchestra. It thus seems that they have rescued each other. Evelyn will simply have to find someone else to cook — namely Jac. Cindy loves lots of men and seems destined to continue to do so.]

Templeton, Karen. Honky-Tonk Cinderella. A How to Marry a Monarch Book in the Silhouette Series. New York: Silhouette Books, 2001.

[Backcover: Truck-stop waitress Luanne Evans had known the customer who wound up in her trailer one night was not exactly one of the local boys. As to who he was, she didn’t care. For when he was gone, she would have nothing but memories. Or so she thought … . Prince Aleksander Vlastos had run out on Luanne eleven years ago, and he’d lived with regret ever since. But regret wasn’t the only thing he’d left behind. There was a ten-year-old child — the heir to Alek’s throne. Luanne had had him for ten years, and now it was his turn. She owed him. And he’d come to collect … . Sometimes, when you least expect it, fairy tales come true.]

Tenenbaum, E. L. The End of Ever After: A Cinderella Retelling. Fire & Ice Young Adult Books, 2018.

In this retelling, the traditional Cinderella plot occurs before the novel begins. Cinderella’s prince is furious that he has to marry a commoner after being trapped by his proclamation to marry whomever fit the slipper. As such, he plots to slowly poison his wife. During the novel, readers see the Cinderella character attempt to please her husband, adjust to life at court, and then realize that her husband wishes to end her life. She saves herself by murdering her husband. This book is also the first in a series of retold fairy tales by the same author. [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Terribly Twisted Tales. Ed. Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg. New York: Daw Books, 2009.

[A collection of fairy tale revisions. Stories in this compilation include “Waifs,” My Great-Great-Grandma Golda Lockes,” “Once They Were Seven,” “Capricious Animisitic Tempter,” “A Charming Murder (The Cinderella variant—See Eklund),” “Jack and the Genetic Beanstalk,” “What’s in a Name?,” “No Good Deed,” “The Red Path,” “Lost Child,” “Rapunzel Strikes Back,” “Revenge of the Little Match Girl,” “Clockwork Heart,” “The Hundred-Year Gap,” “Five Goats and a Troll,” “Something about Mattresses,” “Three Wishes,” and The Adventure of the Red Riding Hoods.”] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Thomas, Jane Resh. The Princess in the Pigpen. New York: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

Thomas, Joyce Carol. When the Nightingale Sings. New York: Harper-Collins, 1992.

[For synopsis see African, African American, Caribbean, and Creole Cinderellas.]

Thornton, Susan. “The Have-A-Heart Trap.” In The Best of Puerto Del Sol 1988. The 25th anniversary collection, published by the English Department, University of New Mexico.

[Draws upon Baba Yaga stories with slums of the inner city becoming terrifying woods for a white, male suburban child.]

Tillett, Iris. The Cinderella Army. UK: I. Tillett, 1988.

Tobias, Jay. Cinderella Rose. Boston: W.H. Baker and Company, 1932.

Tori, Barbara. The Cinderella Factor. New York: Avon, 1972.

[Fifty beautiful, experienced, liberated women from professions as diverse as banker, lawyer, race driver, top model, top designer, exotic dancer–even a gorgeous woman with a club foot–gather at the chic Baylor Hotel, site of a beauty contest sponsored by Princess Incorporated, the top cosmetics firm which is looking for the ideal model. An unknown reporter from Dare magazine haunts the scene, along with Frank Quinn, ex-cop now Baylor Security Chief, who keeps the girls safe in their gilded cages and wows them with his tough sexiness–“I’m not a realist. I’m a romantic with the heart ripped out of him.” The story plays up Cinderella analogues as the girls, from the independently wealthy to the financially destitute, tell their stories and aspire to be chosen princess at the cosmetics ball; as familiarity progresses it then shifts to a Beauty and the Beast story through the rough appeal of Quinn, whose beastliness and sexual mystique triumphs as something beautiful while the women retreat from their worldly wise successes into a girlish adolescence, yearning for cute transformations into their Cinderella’s stories. Tough and ready, Quinn becomes prince as he chooses the winner, and all settle into a tidy family in miniature, nestled into the employ of the Baylor, where the cosmetic scenes behind stage become even more exciting than the Pageant itself. The “Cinderella Factor” is that configuration of qualities that make for a winner.]

Turgeon, Carolyn. Godmother: The Secret Cinderella. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009.

[Turgeon creates an unusual narrative by blending two worlds centered on the life of Lillian, an old woman living in New York City and a former fairy banished from the fairy world. The narrative moves back and forth between Lillian’s time as a fairy before her banishment and her daily experiences as an old woman facing eviction, living on little money, and dealing with her bleak existence. The fairy Lillian made a horrific mistake by failing to get Cinderella to Prince Theodore’s ball. Initially, the fairy becomes too obsessed with Cinderella’s dreams of a man and soon develops feelings for the Prince herself. She also fails to notice the extent of Cinderella’s despair and the abuse she endured at the hands of her stepfamily and other servants. On the night of the ball, Cinderella reveals that she does not long for a husband; she seeks death as a way to rejoin her mother rather than staying in a life of debasement, abuse, and rape. The fairy ignores her statements and leaves her alone briefly while she dances with the Prince; she returns to find that Cinderella has committed suicide by slashing her wrists with shards of the glass slippers. The elders immediately banish the fairy, and, over time, she learns to adjust to her new body and manages to hide her wings and the continual feathers they shed. Finally, as she goes about her daily routine working at a bookstore and is threatened by imminent eviction from her apartment, she begins to see signs from the fairy world, particularly evidence of her sister Maybeth suggesting that she can return home. She then sees an upcoming society event as a way to set her employer, George, up with Veronica, a hair dresser she meets in the bookstore, as a way to atone for her past actions. The day after the ball, Veronica realizes that Lillian is about to be evicted but also reads news paper clippings discussing the rape and suicide of her sister while Lillian was at a dance. Lillian rejects what Veronica says, claiming everything has been restored now that Veronica and George are beginning a relationship; she reveals she is a fairy godmother, and leaves. She then jumps off a pier into a river below as she sees her sister, Maybeth, and her fairy friends beckoning to her from a portal to their world. Readers are left to decide whether Lillian rejoins the fairy world or jumps to her death.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Tydeman, Richard. Red Hot Cinders. London: Evans Brothers, 1973.

Tyler, Anne. Morgan’s Passing. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1980.

[A study in constructed identities, improvisation, clutter, and the transitoriness of being. The tangled plot is perpetually moved onward amidst puppet shows of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast with people caught between fiction-making and their past. Morgan Gower, the title figure, is a cross between a costumed ghost and a fairy godmother to other people’s desires. The one constant is Cinderella’s perpetual, phoenix-like rising from her ashes with the illusion of a new start and freedom from all the oppressive clutter.]

Uys, David Sunley. Cinderella To Princess. Port Elizabeth: Mohair Board, 1988.

Vega, Debra. "Deadman's Ball." In Fairly Twisted Tales for a Horribly Ever After. Edited by Veronica Park, Ashley Ruggirello, and Kisa Whipkey. N.p.: REUTS Publications, 2014. Kindle edition.  

[Becca Skinner claims to break off her engagement due to her horrible stepmother, but the real problem is that she loses her fiancé due to her father's remarriage. She hates her new stepmother and sisters but does nothing because she was raised to respect her elders. The options for other partners are few in this small town. Her family teases her that she might marry Vaughan Whitfield, the richest man in town. Then plague arrives, and Rebecca’s father dies. The girl is moved to the barn. The stepmother, in an odd move, decides to bury her husband in a grave that would signal a false burial. Rebecca is horrified at the funeral and even more so when she sees the grave of her former fiancé. Several weeks pass while her stepmother treats Rebecca as a servant. The town gathers for a dance, and the stepmother and stepsisters attend. After they leave, Rebecca opens her mother’s trunk and wears her mother’s “Sunday best.” As she prepares for the dance, she overlooks the bells ringing in the graveyard initially before finding her father’s grave empty. She rides into town to report grave robbery and interrupts the dance. Vaughan notices her. He asks for a dance before being willing to listen to her. Once he hears of the problem, Vaughan wants to help her. An earthquake occurs, and zombies attack the town. Everyone fights, and Vaughan protects Becca. He grabs her hand early in the battle, and they receive his father’s blessing as he tells them to flee the cursed town. She leaves with Vaughan, knowing that her father will likely visit her stepmother soon.] [Annotation by Martha M. Johnson-Olin] 

Viorst, Judith. “ … And Then the Prince Knelt Down and Tried to Put the Slipper on Cinderella’s Foot.” In Zipes, Don’t Bet on the Prince, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987.

Vitray, Laura. Fashion for Cinderella. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1960.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughter House Five: or The Children’s Crusade. A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. A Fourth-Generation German-American Now Living in Easy Circumstances on Cape Cod [and Smoking Too Much]. Who, as an American Infantry Scout Hors de Combat, as a Prisoner of War, Witnessed the Fire-Bombing of Dresden, Germany, “The Florence of the Elbe,” a Long Time Ago, and Survived to Tell the Tale. This is a Novel Somewhat in the Telegraphic Schizophrenic Manner of Tales of the Planet Tralfamadore, Where the Flying Saucers Come from. Peace. New York: Delacourte Press, 1969.

[As a prisoner of war in Dresden, Billy Pilgrim arrives in the prison camp as a scarecrow with no boots. “At the far end of the shed, Billy saw pink arches with azure draperies hanging between them, and an enormous clock, and two golden thrones, and a bucket and a mop. It was in this setting that the evening’s entertainment would take place, a musical version of Cinderella, the most popular story ever told” (p. 96). Billy borrows the shoes which the British prisoners used in their Cinderella pantomime–airman’s boots painted silver–and “the boots fit perfectly. Billy Pilgrim was Cinderella, and Cinderella was Billy Pilgrim” (p. 145). As Billy works detail in the kitchen over the glowing stove the hem of his coat catches fire. But that is nothing compared to the fire-bombing of the city, which he survives–a chosen one from the ashes–in slaughter house five. See also Vonnegut’s introduction to Transformations, by Anne Sexton, under Modern Poetry, where he discusses Cinderella as the single most basic plot, the archetype underlying most of Western literature.]

Von Aschenbrenner, Gunhilt Barbara. Cinderella’s Children. Ocean Shores, Washington: Lollipop Books, 1986.

Walker, Kate. The Cinderella Trap. Toronto: Harlequin Books, January, 1989.

[Backcover: “He had hurt her once, now she’d get even. Clea Mallory was a successful London model when Matt Highland suddenly reappeared in her life - he would never recognize the chubby teenager he’d so cruelly insulted. Clea knew this was her chance to revenge her bitter memories, and so she set a trap for Matt using herself as the carefully masked bait. But Matt was not stopped by the false face Clea presented - he was determined to love the woman she really was inside.” The blurb explains the crux this way: “‘Is this rubbish really essential?’ Without waiting for her response, Matt headed toward the door with her elegant gray vanity case. ‘This is my property! I want to know what you’re going to do!’ she shouted as the door swung shut behind him. For a second she sat stunned, then ran from the house and halted in the yard, staring in horrified disbelief. Matt was throwing her precious cosmetics into the heart of a blazing bonfire. ‘Matt - no!’ she screamed, leaping at the fire. ‘Clea, don’t be a fool.’ Matt’s voice was harsh. ‘Don’t you realize that you don’t need any of this?’ Driven back by the heat, Clea could only stand and watch numbly. She felt as if a part of her, quite literally, had gone up in smoke.” But Clea has learned what a lonely boy Matt had been in his youth, how his mother had been obsessed with outside appearances. And so she relents of her plan to harm him: “Remember how you used to call me Cinderella? In a way that was true I was like Cinderella suddenly throwing off her rags and realising that in her ballgown she was beautiful. But I couldn’t see clearly, I thought it was just the clothes and the make-up, not me. You helped me see it all so differently” (p. 183).]

Walker, Wendy. “Ashiepattle.” In The Sea-Rabbit: Or, The Artist of Life. Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1988. Pp. 66-81.

[The old king, years after the marriage, recalling better the costume than the person of young Ashiepattle, remembers the ball nights, his searching for her, and the blissful kiss when he found her. That had been the last moment of untroubled happiness. Meanwhile, the old Queen works in the dovecote, and wonders about the freedom of birds amd clouds.]

Ward, Rebecca. Cinderella’s Stepmother. A Regency Romance. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1991. Copyright by Maureen Wartski.

[Backcover: Pitching her inexperienced young stepmother against a seasoned London rake spelled disaster! Nella had been thunderstruck when her late father married a lady three years younger than herself. But all doubt disappeared when Lady Angelica Linden and her two stepdaughters became fast friends. Since Sir Thomas Linden’s death, however, the Linden ladies had been largely ignored — except by his creditors. The solution was clear: one of them must find a rich husband. Although Lord Deering was wealthy and truly smitten with Angelica, Nella was certain the handsome peer would never offer for the beautiful — and penniless — beauty. Worse, her own attraction to Deering’s comrade, Major Harcourt, appeared just as hopeless. The military, it seemed, was his only love! Or was, until this lovely Cinderella and her fairy stepmother joined forces …. Flyleaf: “You are magnificent.” Nella did not know what to do. The major was looking at her in a way that made her feel decidedly odd. Something was happening to her, and she did not understand it. Her heart had begun to thump. She looked up at him uncertainly. No one, Harcourt thought confusedly, had the right to have a mouth like that. Warm and generous and soft, it invited — no, commanded kissing. Suddenly a scream shattered the silence. “What in God’s name was that?” the major exclaimed.]

Warner, Maria. "Cinderella (That Story)." Fairy Tale Review, 17.1 (2021): 94-96.

[Warner explores the fraught dynamics between mothers and daughters. A woman rejects the legacy of deposed royalty in her youth, distancing herself from her mother. After her mother's death, the daughter realizes she was loved by a mother who would not and could not understand her decisions.] [Annotatino by Martha Johnson-Olin]

Weaver, Ingrid. Cinderella’s Secret Agent. New York: Silhouette, 2001.

[An Intimate Moments Romance: A year of loving dangerously, where passion rules and nothing is what it seems. This book is a sequel in the lives of Del Rogers, strong and sensitive — with amber eyes and a seductive smile: SPEAR sharpshooter Del Rogers had learned the hard way that love and marriage were off-limits to a man like him. Still, playing white knight to the beautiful and desirable Maggie Rice was one off-duty assignment he couldn’t pass up. Maggie Rice: a blonde-haired, blue-eyed new mom who still believes in fairy-tale endings. Although the man of her dreams was awfully secretive, Maggie couldn’t resist the powerful allure of the gallant-and-gorgeous Del Rogers. Why, she had him pegged as a real-life Prince Charming! But this sweet-natured Cinderella was holding out for promises of forever. “Simon”: This menacing traitor seems to have more lives than a cat. Now he’s about to make his move. No matter who close SPEAR’s top agents get, “Simon” is always one step ahead of them. Now this diabolical archvillain is about to stage a full-frontal attack. Anyone who dares to stand in his way had better prepare for the fallout! Back cover: The Agent: Dashing sharpshooter Del Rogers. The Emergency Mission: Saving the day when pregnant waitress Maggie Rice need a helping hand — pronto! The Hidden Talent: Giving Sir Galahad a run for his money. Holed up on a stakeout, Del was determined to capture a dangerous traitor named Simon. After a history of heartbreak, falling in love did not factor into his undercover mission. But then he delivered Maggie’s baby and found the Cinderella of his dreams. Before he could assess the situation, Del had temporarily stepped into the role of Delilah’s doting father … and Maggie’s adoring husband! Dare this chivalrous secret agent indulge in fantasies of happily-ever-after?]

Webb, Kathleen. Cinderella’s Shoe Size. Harlequin American Romance #904, December. Toronto: Harlequin, 2001.

[Backcover: “When shoe saleswoman Cindy Rawlins lost an expensive shoe — a $500-a-pair shoe — she desperately placed an ad before her boss found out! And when wealthy businessman Parker Stevens showed up, requesting to buy the same pair of shoes, Cindy was immediately suspicious. It happened to be a coincidence, but Cindy couldn’t help but feel like Cinderella when way-out-of-her-league Parker suddenly invited her as his date to a high-society party. Intrigued to see how the rich lived, Cindy anxiously agreed. And when her gown didn’t turn into rags at midnight, Cindy couldn’t believe the evening wasn’t a dream. But could one man, who happened to know her shoe size, fill this reluctant fairy-tale princess with the belief that happy endings did happen?” The answer is, of course, yes. When Parker tries to find out what she does in her spare time she says she has no spare time: she works two jobs. “Hmm … that’s too bad,” he replies, “because I wanted to sweep you away, and make you my princess.” Eventually he does. At the end of the novel, when midnight strikes, Parker asks, “You’re not going to run off on me, are you? Barefoot and all?” “Not a chance,” Cindy said. “I have everything I need right here. For now and for always.” She paused to admire the wink of her diamond solitaire in the light. “My pumpkin and my Prince,” she concludes.]

Wells, Robin. Plain Jane Gets Her Man. New York: Silhouette Books, 1997.

[According to the back cover and blurb, “When Sarah looked in the mirror she saw a plain Jane. Sarah yearned for a husband and family, but how could she ever hope to attract the one man she dreamed of &151; Jake Masters? The hunky single dad would never look at her that way. One Transformation Coming Right Up! Or would he? What if she got a sassy new haircut? Dumped the thick glasses for contacts and wore a touch of makeup? a slinky dress? Hmm … maybe this Cinderella would finally get to go to the ball — and win her Prince Charming. Or maybe Sarah would discover that Jake liked the old Sarah just the way she was … .” “She hesitated, fear nibbling at the edge of her consciousness. She didn’t want to ruin this magical, wonderful spell Jake had woven, and certainly didn’t want to leave this incredible, starstrewn place he’d taken her. If she opened her eyes, it might all disappear. She wanted to cling to the fantasy a little longer. He’d made her feel like a swan. She didn’t want to look in the mirror and see an ugly duckling. ‘Open your eyes,’ he urged softly. ‘I want you to see how beautiful you are.’ Her heart raced and tripped, and the air in her lungs felt hot and heavy. Her breath came in short shallow puffs. Slowly, slowly she opened her eyes. He met her gaze in the mirror. ‘You’re beautiful,’ he whispered. And suddenly she felt it. For the first time in her life, she truly felt beautiful.”]

Wharton, Edith. Summer. 1917.

[The orphan Charity is kept by Mr. Royall who is both a substitute father and ultimately her mate, even after Charity’s abortive romance with a false prince conducted with silk slippers; Charity is both a Cinderella figure and a victimized stepsister, the shoe of the false prince’s fiance fitting Charity as mistress quite poorly. Fleeing her would-be seducer “step-father,” Charity travels to the mountain in search of her mother who is dead. Her plot combines both Aschenputtel and Allerleirauh motifs as she regains her strength through bonding with her dead mother, and is reconciled with the “step-father,” Mr. Royall, who proves to be a gentler prince than the man who took advantage of her. They marry at the end.]

Wilks, Eileen. Midnight Cinderella. New York: Silhouette Books, 1999. Intimate Moments no. 921.

[Backcover: Lone-star Loner? Nathan Jones was the richest rancher around, but he was the outcast of Bitter Creek, Texas. Once his hometown’s Prince Charming, his love for the wrong woman had cost another man his life. Now a fallen hero, Nate swore no one would ever break through the impenetrable fortress he’d built around his heart. But Nate had never counted on the sweet beauty of Hannah McBride. What was it about his injured brother’s nurse that had Nate hungering for her healing touch? Even though her innocent heart was as transparent as a glass slipper, hadn’t Nate learned there was no such thing as a happily ever after? Flyleaf: The clock chimed midnight. Nate could almost hear the Fates laughing as he crossed the room. To think that he’d risked getting pulled over for speeding on his way into town. He’d been worried that the nurse waiting for him at the bus station might take a look around, get disgusted and leave on the next bus out. Bitter Creek, Texas, wasn’t much to look at in the daytime. At midnight, it looked like the back end of nowhere. There hadn’t been much point in hurrying, though, had there? She wasn’t going to stay anyway. Hannah McBride, the woman he’d hired on the basis of a phone interview and a friend’s hearty recommendation, was the sort of woman who belonged in the glossy pages of a magazine, not a dingy bus station, and certainly not at his ranch. She was everything Nate had ever wanted in a woman. Once.]

Williamson, Alice Muriel (1869-1933). My Lady Cinderella. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1900; rpt. New York: McClure, Phillips, and Company, 1906.

Wilson, David Henry. The Coachman Rat. New York: Carroll and Graf, 1989. Originally published in West Germany as Ashmadi, 1985.

[Robert, the rat transformed into the coachman of Cinderella (here called Amadea), traces events following Cinderella/Amadea’s marriage to the Prince of a nameless little kingdom beset by fierce political tensions. As the fateful midnight struck, Robert resumed his animal form but retained human reason and speech. Taken up as a curiosity–a talking rat–by local intellectuals and eventually caught up in a revolution manipulated by Devlin, his master, he regains human form at the public execution of the Prince and Amadea, as the Fairy Godmother reappears to escort their souls to heaven. Motivated by his love for Amadea and his horror at her cruel death (she is burned as a witch) he swears revenge and proceeds to gain Devlin’s confidence as the new autocrat consolidates his power. When the right time comes Robert secretly poisons all the dogs and cats in town and, with his magic recorder, raises a horde of rats to destroy Devlin and his army. But when the bubonic plague strikes and even good men perish, Robert acts as Pied Piper to lure his fellow rats to death in the river. The town is saved, but Robert flees in bitter despair, dying of plague and wishing he were a rat again. He tells his story to a sympathetic doctor who tends him in his last days. – David Nicholson]

Winthrop, W. Y. A 20th Century Cinderella, or $20,000 Reward. An Anglo-American Up-to-date Realistic Romance. New York: The Abbey Press, 1902.

[Dora, an orphan in the care of a London ecclesiastical family, runs away to Paris with a young American, Jim, where they are married and return, incognito to New York. Jim, it turns out, is a millionaire, trying to make it on his own. Dora is abducted by crooks, meets Jim’s father, who adores her and gives her gifts. She is then, after much drama, reunited with her husband and they are married (again), now according to their public identities. The father-in-law is a train nut and buys railroads rather than models. High drama on a trip from New York to San Francisco, with murders and more abductions. But it turns out well at the end, lavishly lucrative for all, enough even to impress the British contingent.]

Woodiwiss, Kathleen E. So Worthy My Love. New York: Avon Books, 1989.

[A Cinderella story of a young woman brought low, only to rise again. Elise Radborne, whose father mysteriously disappeared (leaving her to make her way without property or protection), is abducted and taken from London to a castle in Germany. There she is amazed to discover that her captor is Maxim Seymour, Lord of Bradbury Hall, a man convicted of plotting against Queen Elizabeth. She is amazed because he allegedly died outside the Tower of London. But he is very much alive and is as amazed as Elise, since the abductors got the wrong woman. They had been ordered to abduct Maxim’s one-time but not to be trusted fiancée. Both Elise and Maxim find that they are less deadly enemies than they had imagined: Maxim is a noble outlaw living in exile amidst conspirators for the throne; she is a person of character in exile as well. His problem is that he has inadvertantly added to hers. But what fate began, passion will consummate. Even Dad will add his blessing.]

Wright, Harold Bell (1872-1944). Ma Cinderella. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1932.

Wylie, Philip (1902-1971). Footprint of Cinderella. New York: A. L. Burt, 1931; and New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 193l.

[Jonathan Leigh was a man of enormous wealth. His sister Chloe adored him. He fell in love with and married an opera singer Daisy Storey, and they had a daughter Muriel. To Chloe, this marriage degrades Philadelphia society and the ancient lineage to which she was so devoted. The line went back to the Leighs in England and also to an aristocratic French line named Laforge, that lost its prestige after the French Revolution. Daisy becomes ill after child birth and is required to go to Europe for a cure. Chloe goes along to help care for the child. Daisy is swept overboard in an exhilarating storm, and Chloe plans her revenge (redemption). She finds an orphaned Laforge descendant, who is the same age as Muriel, claims the child and returns to Philadelphia. She takes the real Muriel and gives her to be raised by a bee keeper named Jamison in Mayville, Ohio. The child is given the name of Janet. Chloe arranges for $100.00 a year to be given to Jamison for the care of Janet. Years later Rupert, prince of Sabria, needs to marry an American heiress to save the Sabrian economy. The regent-dictator, Duke of Valak, arranges for Rupert to marry Muriel. Muriel and Rupert fall in love. At a horse-jumping event prior to the wedding, Jonathan falls from his horse and is killed. Lawyer Douglas Avery and his legal partner son Barney notice peculiarities in the will; namely, that Jonathan’s estate will go to his daughter Muriel, but only after her identity is proven by the footprint that was recorded in the hospital at her birth. With the will is an Ohio address. The wedding of Rupert and Muriel is delayed by the funeral, and Barney, having surreptitiously discovered that Muriel’s footprint does not match the baby’s, goes to Ohio, meets Janet, falls in love with her, but then discovers that she is the rightful heir. He now is in a dilemma, because revelation of the truth will make him seem to love Janet only for her money. Valak, who knows Chloe’s secret but nothing of the will, is suspicious of the lawyer’s trip and sets out for Ohio to kill Janet. Chloe is stricken with conscience, gets there first, and brings Janet to Philadelphia on the ruse that her mother has been identified and that she is to receive an inheritance of $5,000. When the truth comes out, Chloe denies the charges, but when she learns of the will she is moved by knowledge that her brother has known all along of her deception, but has provided for her nonetheless. Janet saves the day: she gives half the $45,000,000.00 estate to Muriel. Muriel refuses, but Barney whispers to Janet that she give the money to Sabria anyway for the maintenance of hospitals and social services. Rupert expels Valak, convinces Muriel that he loves her and wasn’t marrying her just for her money, and Janet and Barney, realizing fully each others’ kindnesses, wed. Chloe resigns herself to old age, knowing that she has been cared for after all and need only look after herself.]

Wynne-Jones, Tim. “The Goose Girl.” In Black Thorn, White Rose. Ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. New York: Avon Books, 1994. Pp. 151-172.

[Watching his children play "snake" in the cold water of the river he reflects on his cold wife and the story of their lives. The story he recalls differs from the story of the Goose Girl told by old crones, though it is the same story — how a princess, attended by her older lady in waiting, journeyed to the prince’s estate where she was to be married. Along the way they stopped to swim. The girl was amazed at the beauty of the lady in waiting’s body. The next day she asked to swim again, this time stripping naked herself. After the swim, on a lark, they change clothes and happen, almost immediately to the palace. The princess is lagging behind and the false princess is welcomed as the true and whisked away with the prince, who is greatly attracted to her and takes her to his room where they make love. Why the real princess did not reveal the truth is unclear. The old crone says it was because of an oath she was forced to take, but more likely it was simply because of her arrogance. The prince soon figures it out, for the “goose girl” is haughty and arrogant, as princesses are, while the false princess is affectionate and devoted. The prince also has the advantage of several conversations with the head of Falada, the talking horse who bore the princess, then the false princess, to the palace. The false princess becomes pregnant, but says she can take care of the problem herself — how, the prince does not at first understand. Eventually the king finds out the truth about the switched identities and puts the story of the false bride to the false bride at the bridal luncheon. The woman, glancing at the prince, tells the king that the woman who betrayed the princess should be put in a barrel studded with nails and dragged in the barrel by two white horses until she is dead. The execution is carried out and the prince marries the true princess. But he slips away to the barrel where he finds his true love dead, her body torn by birds and wild animals. He wonders if he might see the unborn child, but it is not to be seen; his love has indeed taken care of that problem. He takes three bloody nails from the barrel to keep as unholy relics and lives on with his cold wife who, first off, had had Conrad the goose boy executed, and then took a lover of whom the prince is not jealous.]

Yardley, Cathy. The Cinderella Solution. Toronto: Harlequin Duets, 2000.

[Published with Lori Foster’s Say Yes. Backcover: When Charlotte Taylor’s best friend, Gabe Donofrio, agreed with her that she wasn’t the type of woman men fall in love with, she bet him a thousand dollars she’d have a marriage proposal in three months. Then she turned her tomboy self into a sexy siren, The World’s Most Eligible Bachelor moved in next door … and Gabe realized he’d made a big mistake? The woman of his dreams was right under his nose. Flyleaf: “I wanted you to see these viciously sexy outfits,” Charlie said. “No,” Gabe said. Seeing her in plain white bra and matching panties was viciously sexy enough, thanks very much! She laughed and ignored his protest. When she had finished modeling her creations his heart was beating as if he’d run a marathon. Finally she slipped back into her jeans and shirt. “So? What did you think?” she asked eagerly. What did he think? He thought she’d shaved ten years off his life with that sensual torture! “I thought it was very … nice.” “Nice?” She frowned at him. “I’m looking for devastatingly sexy. Come on, Gabe, work with me!” “Fine,” he said, sighing deeply. “You were incredible. You would make a Buddhist monk pant like a dog. If God made anything better he would have kept it for himself. Satisfied?” She grinned. “Now, that’s what I wanted to hear.”]

Yolen, Jane. “Cinder Elephant.” In A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales. Ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. New York: Aladdin Fantasy Paperbacks, 200l. Pp. 17-29.

[A lovely big girl named Eleanor lived with her father. Her mother had been called Pleasingly Plump, her grandmother, Round and Rosie, her great-grandmother, Sunny and solid, and her great-great-grandmother was called Fat. Elly’s father remarries a woman with two thin daughters. They mock her: “Elly, Elly, big fat belly, Cinderer Elephant.” They make Elly work, but in her spare time she exercises by reading sports books. The prince calls a ball. Elly can’t go, but bluebirds help her to get dressed, in feathers. She looks like a big fat hen sitting on a nest. The prince is a bird-watcher and can’t take his eyes off her. They talk about sports, and the prince thinks he must love her. But she gets away, leaving behind her gigantic shoe. The prince seeks her despite his father’s objection: “Princes marry swans &151; not hens.” He comes to her house where the shoe is much too big for the thin sisters. The bluebirds tell of Elly, but the shoe falls apart. Elly gets the other from the window sill. It has eggs hidden among the ferns. The prince weds his dear hen, and they have a bunch of children. Moral: “If you love a waist, you waste a love.”]

Yorke, Curtis. What Came To Cinderella. London: Hutchinson, 1926.

Zackel, Fred. Cinderella After Midnight. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1980.

[Dust jacket: Julie Beaumont is fifteen, the daughter of divorced parents — and missing. Just another run-away who’ll probably come home when she’s had her fill of the streets. But Julie doesn’t come home and her mother, Heather, convinced that Julie’s father has taken her, hires Michael Brennan to find the girl. A routine custody case. Then a bad check, a brutal murder, and a mysterious kidnapping pitch Brennan into one of the most baffling cases of his career. Soon everyone seems interested in Julie — even Patricia Cardine, the U.S. Senator from California, and Stephen Daniel Wyant, San Francisco’s richest philanthropist — and Brennan is caught in a spiral of violence and family scandal as he cruises the city’s seedy Tenderloin district, its luxurious suburbs, and all its streets and alleyways in a race for a young girl’s life. Cinderella After Midnight is San Francisco after dark — a high-speed tour of crooked streets and seculed hiding places, tawdry bars and swank discos, offices where important political deals are made and the corners where the deals of the streets go down, all evoked with the authority of a native and the skill of a gifted novelist. Fred Zackel’s first Michael Brennan novel, Cocaine and Blue Eyes (1978), reminded Ross Macdonald “of the young Dashiell Hammett’s work, not because it is an imitation, but because it is not. It is a powerful and original book made from the lives and language of the people who live in San Francisco today.]

Zane, Carolyn. The Cinderella Inheritance. New York: Silhouette Books, 2003.

[Back cover: “Congratulations, Cynthia Noble. You’ve just inherited a multimillion-dollar estate. What are you going to do with your sudden fortune?” Inheriting the home of her former employer was a miracle for the near-bankrupt struggling student. Yet her sudden windfall had come with an unexpected price. Namely, Rick Wingate, whose family should have rightfully inherited Cynthia’s new estate, and who was convinced this instant heiress was up to no good. Cynthia knew she should consider Rick her enemy, but she could only see him as a man determined to protect his family, a man whose very touch shot fireworks through her body. And suddenly, no monetary gift held as much allure as the hope of becoming Rick’s Cinderella bride. Flyleaf: “I don’t think my brother would mind if you were planning on kissing me good-night,” Rick whispered, his mouth almost on hers. Cynthia was shocked. “I wasn’t … ” “After all, we are practically family … ” “No.” “No?” “No! I mean, yes, we are practically family, but no, I … I … don’t … want … you … to … kiss me.” She closed her eyes against the pull of Rick’s glittering eyes and tried to will him into releasing her. Which was hard, as she wanted nothing of the kind. However, what he wanted was something different altogether. Clearly, he wanted to punish her for committing what he perceived to be a crime against his family. He wanted to prove with a kiss that she really wasn’t after his brother, but after his brother’s money. What better way to demonstrate what he believed to be so obvious? No, She could not let him kiss her. No matter how much she wanted him to.]

-----. Cinderella’s Secret Baby. A Silhouette Romance, no. 1308. New York: Silhouette Books, 1998.

[According to the cover blurbs, Mac Brubaker “could not believe his eyes. It was Ella, all right. No mistaking that. The thing he couldn’t get over, get around, get past, was her … condition. She was pregnant. With child. Great with child … . Myriad emotions whipped his mind, numbing it with confusion. But his heart suffered no such bewilderment. Only longing. Oh, how he’d missed her. How he yearned for her still. After every-thing. She had hurt him deeply, and now … now he’d discovered that she was about to have a child. His child.” For shy kitchen maid Ella McCloskey, it was “a fairy tale come true … . For when millionaire rancher Mac Brubaker whisked her away for a secret wedding and secluded honeymoon, she thought she’d found her prince. But circumstances soon had Ella heading for the Texas hills, and not even stopping to pick up her glass slipper. The Cinderella bride thought she’d put all her dreams of happily ever after behind her. Until Mac showed up … just as she was about to give birth to his secret baby!”]

[A great many narratives draw upon tropes characteristic of the Cinderella story for newly individualized, often antithetical, effects. For treatment of ideas pertaining to the benevolent male protecting and “saving” the helpless female, with disastrous results, see: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper; or William Faulkner, Dry September. For studies in expectation and thwarted happiness see Mary Lavin, Happiness in Selected Stories (1981), pp. 195-208; Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (with Pip as a sort of male Cinderella, and Miss Haversham as an unkind “step-mother,” thwarting his desires); T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” a study in frustration akin in many ways to Mona Van Duyn’s “Cinderella.” For a study in the dance without magic, only a haunting emptiness and disappointment, see Raymond Carver, “Why Don’t You Dance,” in What We Talk About When We Talk About LoveN.Y.: Knopf, 1981, pp. 3-10. For a study in the “Cinderella complex” (i.e, a woman frustrated by dependence upon a rescuing Prince), see Mary Gordon, Men and Angels, New York: Random House, 1985, which one scholar has typified as “Cinderella meets the Crucifixion.”