the little red riding hood charles perrault

This is Gaiman’s ( American Gods, 2001, etc.) first novel for children, and the author of the Sandman graphic novels here shows a sure sense of a child’s fears-and the child’s ability to overcome those fears.

A drawing-room door that opens onto a brick wall becomes a natural magnet for the curious little girl, and she is only half-surprised when, one day, the door opens onto a hallway and Coraline finds herself in a skewed mirror of her own flat, complete with skewed, button-eyed versions of her own parents. 7+)Ī magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.Ĭoraline’s parents are loving, but really too busy to play with her, so she amuses herself by exploring her family’s new flat. Definitely not for preschoolers, but a valid interpretation to fascinate and challenge older readers. Some will be troubled by the terror and sexuality in these brooding, exquisite illustrations others will respond to their beauty and to the skill with which the artist has revealed the tale's mythic power. In the last, the huntsman-savior appears in a pillar of light. The illustrations deliberately refer to DorÇ's famous engravings (1867) two of the most dramatic poses are almost identical to DorÇ, but Montresor carries the tale into the 20th century with his extraordinary final pictures: the wolf swallowing the child as an act of love as well as ferocity then three textless spreads of Red Riding Hood, unhurt, within the complacent wolf like a child awaiting birth, floating pure on a field of scarlet that recalls her cloak. Montresor-an admired set designer as well as a Caldecott medalist (1965)-provides a theatrical setting with elegant architectural forms and a stylized forest in finely detailed black touched with soft color the dapper, white-suited wolf is an appealingly furry seducer, his victim a blond innocent.

For many, Perrault's original version will be unfamiliar-it concludes with the wolf eating Red Riding Hood (in this faithful, economical translation, ``devouring'' her). In his introduction to this ``beautiful, violent tale,'' Luciano Pavarotti suggests that these illustrations ``will leave you breathless.'' That's an understatement.

The little red riding hood charles perrault