Slipper - Softcover

Velmans, Hester

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0999475606 ISBN 13: 9780999475607

Publisher: van Horton Books, 2018

Synopsis

THE TRUE STORY OF CINDERELLA: Meet the woman who inspires the author of the world's most famous story. Lucinda, a penniless English orphan, is abused and exploited as a cinder-sweep by her aristocratic relatives. On receiving her sole inheritance—a pair of glass-beaded slippers—she runs away to France in pursuit of an officer on whom she has a big crush. She joins the baggage train of Louis XIV’s army, survives a horrific massacre, and eventually finds her way to Paris. There she befriends the man who will some day write the world’s best loved fairy tale, Charles Perrault.There is much more: a witch hunt, the sorry truth about daydreams, plus some truly astonishing revelations, such as the historical facts behind the story of the Emperor's new clothes, and a perfectly reasonable explanation for the compulsion some young women have to kiss frogs. This is not the fairy tale you remember.

About this title

About the Author

Hester Velmans is a novelist and award-winning translator of literary fiction. She grew up in Amsterdam, New York, Paris, Geneva and London, and now lives in Western Massachusetts. SLIPPER is her first novel for adults. She is also the author of the children's books (for middle readers) Isabel of the Whales and Jessaloup's Song.

Review

"Slipper is the most engaging novel I have read in a long time. Part romantic love story, part fairy tale, part feminist commentary, this is a wonderful, old fashioned novel to be savored. It is as if a graduate student had stumbled upon a handwritten, 19th century manuscript in the British Library, read it, and declared, 'There was a fourth Bronte sister -- and she was the most talented of the brood!'" -- Daniel Klein, author of Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar and Travels with Epicurus

"An unexpectedly honest modern novel clothed in the traditional tropes of historical romance. Despite thematically re-imagining the origins of several popular fairy tales, as a bildungsroman the story is refreshingly authentic in the growth of the heroine from an unfettered idealist to a nearly-perfected realist. ...The charm of the protagonist is more than potent enough to draw the reader along through a story that both pointedly charges us with taking command of our own fate, and tasks us with deciding for ourselves what the moral of our own story should be." -- Thomas A. Peters, Readers' Favorite

"Although this novel mainly pays specific homage to Cinderella, Velmans laces the book with references to the other tales. The author builds this network with remarkable care, and although the resulting novel is a complex web of influences, it's never a confounding one. Furthermore, she writes in a delicate, ornate prose style that has a transporting effect, bringing readers back to Perrault's time and nestling them in a thoroughly alluring narrative. A satisfying blend of history and myth that breathes new life into Cinderella." -- Kirkus

"A unique take on the classic fairy tale Cinderella, SLIPPER blends historical fact with historical fiction to create a starkly realistic yet hopeful tale of overcoming hardship....It feels realistic in its skillful blend of history and fiction, adding historical figures to the ensemble as though the fictional characters alongside them existed too." -- IndieReader

About this edition

• Publisher: van Horton Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0999475606
• ISBN 13: 9780999475607
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 378